


Change Your Life

by boffeeceans



Category: Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Genre: Complicated Relationships, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Gen, M/M, No beta we die like Outlaws, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Sexual Content, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:33:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,827
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25903636
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/boffeeceans/pseuds/boffeeceans
Summary: She grabbed a bounty poster from her pocket and placed it on the bar, "Do you know where this man is?"The bartender picked up to poster to take a closer look.He handed the poster back to her, "I'm sorry miss, but i don't know. Anything else?" He askedBeatrice shoved the poster back in her pocket with a defeated sigh, hopefully someone else around this town knew where he was. "No, that's all," She tipped her hat. "thank you." The man nodded at her and went back to washing glasses.
Comments: 21
Kudos: 20





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, this my very first longfic. I don't exactly know where this story is gonna go, so I'm just gonna wing it. Sorry if it moves too fast it should slow down in the next chapter.
> 
> Enjoy :)

The ride to Armadillo was hot, long and exhausting, But Beatrice finally made it. She has heard that Armadillo was a town you could better stay away from because of all the diseases constantly going around, but she didn't think it would be this bad. Scarlet fever was going around like wildfire, half the town was sick and most of the other half was getting ready to leave.

It broke Beatrice's heart to see the people of Armadillo like this. Someone very close to her has died because of a disease, it wasn't Scarlet fever but it was still bad. Beatrice still misses her dearly, but there was no time for her to sulk around and feel bad for herself. She had to find someone and it was gonna be a whole lot more difficult with her brother disappearing on her.

It was late in the evening and Beatrice made her way over to the saloon for a drink and to rent a room. She hitched her horse outside of the saloon and gave the stallion a pat on the neck before making her up the stairs and walking through the batwing doors. All eyes were immediately on her, some turned back around but others were focused on her like hungry wolves. She tried to ignore them as much as possible while she walked over to the bar counter.

The bartender looked up from cleaning a glass, he was surprised to see a young woman in his saloon. "Uh, w- what can I get you today, miss?"

Beatrice sat down on a barstool and threw about five dollars on the bar counter, "A room and a whi-" A man grabbed her waist before she could finish her sentence.

"How about you take me to that room of yours, pretty girl." A strong smell of alcohol and cigarettes came out of the man's mouth. Beatrice turned her head to look at him, his teeth were rotten and he looked and smelled like he hadn't taken a bath in months. 

"Hey, how abo-" the bartender started

Beatrice stopped the bartender from speaking by holding her hand up. She got off the barstool and looked the man in the eye with a sweet smile. Beatrice kneed him the balls before he could even blink, the man fell to his knees as a loud "Fuck!" left his mouth. Beatrice grabbed the man by his collar, swiftly removed her knife from its sheath and held it to his throat. The sweet smile that was once on her face was now replaced by a look that could scare a lion.

Beatrice used the knife to lift the man's chin and made him look directly into her eyes before she spoke, "Y'know, I've been on the road for weeks and I'm exhausted, all I want is to enjoy a drink and to finnaly sleep in a bed again. So i suggest you keep your mouth shut from now on unless you want to lose your balls. " The man looked at her with pure horror in his eyes, "Understood?" She asked him, he quickly nodded his head causing the knife to protrude the man's skin. Beatrice wiped the bit of blood off her knife and put it back in its sheath and nodded towards the door. The man quickly got to his feet and ran out of the saloon without looking back.

Beatrice turned around to face the bartender, "Sorry about that." She said, a sweet smile making its way back on her face. "Right, a room and a whiskey, please."

The bartender looked at her in disbelief, no way someone could go from looking sweet and innocent to threatening someone with nothing but a knife and succeeding to make them run off like a scared puppy. He immediately got the whiskey and key to a room for her, scared that he would end up at the other end of her knife if he took too long. Beatrice quickly downed the whiskey and grabbed the key, she tipped her hat to the bartender and made her way to her room.

It didn't take long for her to find it, the room wasn't very large, all it had was a single bed, a nightstand, and a dresser with a mirror. Beatrice placed her hat on the nightstand and let herself fall onto the bed. She thought about her brother, Elijah and Beatrice had a fight about a week ago. Elijah didn't like the idea of going after someone when they're not even sure if he's alive or has any idea where he is. Eventually, Beatrice decided to ignore him and go to sleep, but Elijah was gone when she woke up. 

She closed her eyes and hoped that both the man she was looking for and Elijah were still alive while slowly dozing off.

\---

Beatrice woke up covered in sweat because of the New Austin heat, she got out of bed and stretched with a yawn. She looked at herself in the mirror that was above the drawer and across from her bed, her once bright eyes were now dull and tired with dark circles under them. Her hair was disheveled and all over the place, she ran her hand through it and placed her hat on her head.

She walked down the stairs, the saloon was mostly empty except for the people from last night that were too drunk to leave and the bartender. The man behind the bar counter wasn't the same one as last night. Beatrice walked over to him and cleared her throat and placed the key on the bar, grabbing the man's attention. He smiled at her, "Hope you had a good night's rest, miss." He grabbed the key and put it away. "Anything else I can help you with?"

Beatrice thought for a moment, this might be the best place to start asking for a certain someone. She grabbed a bounty poster from her pocket and placed it on the bar, "Do you know where this man is?"

The bartender picked up to the poster to take a closer look, it read:

WANTED  
DEAD OR ALIVE

$100 REWARD

For Robbery And Murder

DUTCH VAN DER LINDE

He handed the poster back to her, "I'm sorry miss, but I don't know. Anything else?" He asked

Beatrice shoved the poster back in her pocket with a defeated sigh, hopefully, someone else around this town knew where he was. "No, that's all," She tipped her hat. "thank you." The man nodded at her and went back to washing glasses.

Beatrice stood outside of the saloon next to her horse and fed him a carrot, she didn't think finding Dutch van der Linde would be this hard when she and Elijah started searching. She was starting to think that Elijah had made the right decision to leave, walking into dead ends was starting to get old.

"M- miss?" A familiar voice emerged from behind her, she turned around immediately holding her revolver to the man's groin.

"I thought I told you that I didn't want to hear you speak again."

"Wait! I heard you were looking for Van der Linde!" The man stammered. Beatrice looked the man up and down, she pulled the hammer of her revolver down.

"Speak. Quickly."

"I've- I've heard that he and his gang are around Blackwater."

Beatrice put the hammer back in place and slowly nodded, "Thanks, now scram." The man didn't think twice before getting on his horse and quickly riding off. Beatrice watched him leave and turned back to her horse and gave him a pat on the neck before mounting him and riding off. "Next stop: Blackwater."

\---

It has been about two days since Beatrice left Armadillo and was now riding up to Blackwater, she was expecting to arrive in just another boring town, but was met with quite the opposite. The town was filled with Pinkertons and people talking about the Van der Linde Gang, it confirmed Dutch was there, but it also meant she wasn't the only one looking for him. Which could work in her favor, but it could also backfire.

Beatrice carefully rode around town trying to overhear any information, all she knew so far was that there was a ferry job gone wrong that had the gang flee town.

There were posters of Dutch and Hosea everywhere, Beatrice wasn't told to find Hosea but her mother still spoke fondly of him "I've never met a kinder man than Hosea Matthews." Her mother had told her. Beatrice really wanted to meet him if he was really as nice as her mother had told her.

Beatrice overheard a small group of Pinkertons talk about the ferry job, she dismounted and walked closer to them so they couldn't see her eavesdropping.

"You were here, how did it go?" One of them asked the other.

"It was a massacre, 32 dead and we have no idea where they are now."

"I heard they fled to the Grizzlies," A third Pinkerton added, "Probably won't survive there long though. Heard the weather is so bad, it could kill you in seconds." The Pinkertons stood in silence, all three of them hoping they didn't have to go out there to look for the Van der Linde Gang. 

Beatrice slowly emerged from her hiding spot and made sure no one saw her. There was no way that she was going into the grizzlies, not with weather that bad. She mouthed her horse and rode toward the saloon.

She ordered a coffee and sat at a table near the window with a map in front of her to plan her next move. Strawberry wasn't an option, It was too close to Blackwater for a hideout and they would've passed it if they went into the Grizzlies. The next best place was Valentine, a livestock town. It was a good place to exit the Grizzlies and was full of outlaws just like them, Beatrice Circled "Valentine" on her map and put it away. It would take a couple of days for her to get there, but the ride from Armadillo to Blackwater was too exhausting for her to go on the road again right away. She finished her coffee and rented a room for the night, she would plan on leaving first thing in the morning.

\---

Beatrice arrived in Valentine about two weeks ago, she sat on the steps next to the general store with a man she had befriended. His name was Thomas Downes, She donated some to the Charity he was raising money for. They got to talking and Beatrice found out that he had the same disease that killed her mother. Thomas appreciated her company and conversations, She was the only one that bothered talking to him besides his wife and son. Beatrice might have kept her distance, but she always made sure that he could count on her.

She took a drag from her cigarette before focusing her eyes on the newspaper article she had been reading for the past couple days.

TRAIN ROBBED

_______

PITCHED BATTLE LEAVES MANY DEAD

________

OUTLAWS SEND TRAIN ON DRIVERLESS JOURNEY  
________

OWNED BY LEVITICUS CORNWALL  
________

It could've been the Van der Linde Gang, but there was no way of her knowing for sure. It wasn't smart for them to rob a train now, especially one that belonged to Leviticus Cornwall, it would send the Pinkertons right back on their trail. She stared off in the distance, she hoped that they weren't long gone, that they still had to arrive or let themselves known.

Her train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a window being smashed in. Beatrice shot her head up and focused on where the sound was coming from, there was a man in the middle of the road in front of the saloon. He struggled to get off the floor as the people from the saloon gathered around him. "Come on, pretty boy..." Another man that emerged from the saloon said.

"Pretty boy? You're kidding me? Pretty boy?" The man who was previously thrown out of the window said before they continued their fight on the street.

"You okay there, Arthur?" A man from the crowd that was watching the fight said.

Arthur. That name piqued Beatrice's interest, she got up from her spot on the stairs and decided to take a closer look. She grabbed a picture from her satchel and held it up, it could be him, but she wasn't sure and even if it was him her mother told her to talk to Dutch first.

"Yeah, I got this son of a bitch." The man now Identified as Arthur replied. The fight didn't go one for much longer until Arthur had the other man pinned to the ground and was beating his face in like it was nothing. Beatrice didn't notice Thomas rushing past her to get Arthur off the other man, whose name, Beatrice had figured out was Tommy.

Beatrice was too focused on figuring out if that was the Arthur her mom told her about to realize that he pushed her to the side and made his way to the general store. Two men approached him and three others after they talked for a little bit. Beatrice couldn't hear barely hear their conversation and decided to just watch.

"It's you they want. Dutch."

That was something Beatrice could hear. Dutch. It's not a name you hear every day, so it had to be him. She waited for the men to finish their conversation before approaching Dutch.

Dutch was about to mount his horse when Beatrice cleared her throat behind him which caused him to turn around. He had a frown on his face, but that frown was quickly replaced with a charming smile when he realized it was just a girl. "How can I help you miss?" He asked, voice smooth like honey.

Beatrice just stood there, it was really him. Dutch van der Linde. Right in front of her and she had no idea what she was supposed to say now, she didn't think she'd actually get this far after all the dead ends. "Uhm-" She had to say something.

"Miss?" Dutch asked with a raised eyebrow

"My uh, My name is Beatrice Morgan. I- I'm Ethelyn's daughter."

Dutch just looked at her, not understanding what she was talking about until it hit him. "Bill, go on without me, I'll be back later." Bill protested a little before mounting his horse and riding off.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry in advance for any errors and mistakes, 7:03 am and I haven't slept yet... I'm also sorry for taking so long to write this chapter. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it :)

Beatrice and Dutch made their way to Horseshoe Overlook with heavy rain pouring down on them, they didn't hurry though. They walked, each leading their own horse. Neither of them knew what to say, but the silence wasn't uncomfortable.

Beatrice couldn't believe that the Van der Linde gang had been around valentine as long as she had and she hadn't even heard of them once. She looked to her left to see Dutch deep in thought. He had been awfully silent after Beatrice told him that her mother had died. she didn't blame him, she didn't speak for a week after she found out her mother was gone forever.

Dutch's eyes met hers and Beatrice immediately turned away, embarrassed that he caught her staring. "What is it?" He asked.

Beatrice looked back in his direction, "You're just… you're so quiet."

Dutch lifted an eyebrow at her words, "I could say the same about you."

"I know, but my mom told me you rarely shut up, so it's weird that you've barely said anything."

Dutch looked at her, surprised, "Is that so? She's one to talk."

A small smile made its way on Beatrice's face and she slowly nodded her head, "Yeah, she talked a lot about you, Hosea and Arthur too." Beatrice looked down to the ground, her dirty blonde hair sticking to her face. She was gonna have to tell Arthur that she is his daughter and that he also has a son. From what her mother had told her he could react quite extremely or just pretend like he didn't hear it.

"Something wrong?" Dutch asked her.

Beatrice's head shot up at his voice, "oh no, just thinking." She told him. Dutch hummed in understanding.

"We're almost there," Dutch said.

Beatrice nodded, she got more and more nervous the closer to camp they got. She would leave if that's what Arthur wanted, but she would be lying if she said it wouldn't be disappointing. She wished that Elijah told her where he was going so that she could easily find him if Arthur turned her away.

Beatrice yawned, catching Dutch's attention. "Tired?" He asked. She rubbed her eye and nodded.

"I'm used to having someone watch my back when I'm sleeping, but I haven't had someone like that for about a month now, so I'm always somewhat awake." She said.

Dutch looked at her with an apologetic smile. He felt bad for her, she was just a young woman wandering this dangerous world all by herself with no one to look after her.

"We have plenty of people to watch you back at camp, you can sleep in my tent when we get there."

Beatrice was relieved to hear that, "That you."

It was silent once again.

They walked for about a minute or two until they arrived, Beatrice could hear all the talking and laughter. She hitched her horse next to Dutch's before he led her into camp. Everyone fell silent as soon as they saw her, all she could hear were the whispers. Normally when Beatrice heard someone whisper about her she wouldn't hesitate to pull her gun on them and make them talk, but she couldn't do that now, she was gonna have to keep her cool and follow Dutch.

Dutch led her to a large white tent in the middle of the camp, "You can sleep here, come find me when you wake up."

Beatrice walked in the tent, Dutch closed it behind her and walked off. There was a gramophone, a single cot, and several barrels and crates. She sat on the cot and let her head rest in her hands. She finally made it, after months of searching and walking into dead ends she found the Van der Linde gang. She took off her boots and laid down and started to drift off.

\---

Dutch closed the tent and turned around. He almost got a heart attack when he saw that Hosea was standing right behind him. "Who is that?" he asked. Dutch looked around before leading Hosea to an empty table and sitting down. Hosea was confused, he didn't understand why Dutch was being so secretive. A new girl gets brought to camp, but no one is allowed to know who she is? made no sense.

Dutch looked around once more before he said, "You remember Ethelyn."

Hosea's eyes widened, "Of course I remember Ethelyn, she broke poor Arthur's heart by leaving without a word."

"Well, not exactly."

Hosea looked at Dutch with a questioning look, "What are you saying, Dutch? Who's that girl?"

Dutch sighed and looked at the table, "Ethelyn came to me the day before she left," He said, "She was pregnant."

Hosea couldn't believe what he just heard, "So you are saying that that's Etheyn's kid?" Dutch nodded at Hosea's question, "Arthur's?" Dutch nodded again. "How old is she?"

"Eighteen," Dutch answered.

He thought that no one was able to hear their conversation, but a very curious Mary-Beth was listening in. She heard everything and had to tell someone, she made her way over to Tilly and Karen who were also talking about Beatrice. Mary-Beth sat down with them and immediately started talking.

"I heard Dutch and Hosea talk about the girl. Turns out Arthur dated this girl named Ethelyn about eighteen years ago, she got pregnant and left," Mary-Beth pointed at Dutch's tent, "that is their daughter." Tilly and Karen were perplexed, They weren't expecting to hear that.

"Do you know her name?" Karen asked, Mary-Beth shook her head.

"That's all I know."

They split up not long after hearing the news. Karen, who was a little too drunk, slipped and told Uncle. Uncle who of course was also drunk couldn't keep a secret and soon everyone knew and everyone was talking about it.

\---

Beatrice leaned against a tree at the edge of camp waiting for Arthur to return. People were still whispering about her, but she tried not to pay it any mind. Beatrice looked down to her hands, she was holding a photograph of her, her brother, and her mother. Beatrice and Elijah were only ten years old, their mother was still healthy and life was good. She could feel the tears building up in her eyes, but never let them fall. She wished she could go back in time and prevent all the bad things from happening.

When Beatrice quickly turned around with her hand on the handle of her revolver, ready to draw when someone tapped her on her shoulder. She let out a breath when she realized it was just one of the girls.

"oh I'm so sorry, didn't mean to scare ya..," She trailed off, "Are you alright?"

Beatrice quickly wiped away the tears that were threatening to fall, "Yeah, I'm fine." She said.

"I'm Mary-Beth, by the way." Mary-Beth gave her the sweetest smile while she held out her hand for Beatrice to shake.

Beatrice smiled back at her when she took her hand, "Beatrice."

Mary-Beth saw the photograph that Beatrice was holding from the corner of her eye, "What were you looking at?" She asked.

Beatrice looked down at the photograph and handed it to Mary-Beth so she could have a closer look. She carefully took it and studied the people that were on it, she could tell the young girl was Beatrice and the older woman, who was still young, was probably her mother. "She's Beautiful," Mary-Beth said. Beatrice's smile turned into a frown.

"She was."

"I'm so sorry, I didn't-"

Beatrice smiled at Mary-Beth, "It's alright, you couldn't have known."

Mary-Beth let out a relieved sigh and looked back at the picture, who's-" She started but was interrupted by Dutch, "Good evening, ladies."

"Good evening, Dutch," Mary-Beth said. Beatrice just gave him a smile and a nod.

"I don't mean to intrude on your conversation, but I need Miss Beatrice for something."

"oh uh, sure. What do you need me for?" Beatrice asked.

"Just follow me and I'll explain."

Dutch started walking towards his tent and Beatrice followed him while waving Mary-Beth goodbye, forgetting that she still had the photograph.

"John!" Dutch called once they were in front of the tent. A tall man with greasy black hair and fresh scars on his face made his way over to them.

"How are you feeling, son?" Dutch asked once John was near enough for him to hear.

"Not quite right yet, but I'm doin' better." He answered, His voice sounded like his throat was covered in sand and glass. It caught Beatrice off guard, but she decided not to comment on it.

"Good, I need you two to steal this wagon that's supposed to be filled with beer and whiskey. We're gonna need it for Sean's return" Dutch pointed to a road on his map, "It'll pass through here in about an hour or so." Beatrice and John both gave a nod in understanding. "And try not to kill anyone."

"Got it," John said. They left the tent and made their way over to the horses. John held his hand out to Beatrice while they were walking, "John Marston."

Beatrice shook his hand, "Beatrice… uh," She hesitated for a second, "Lowe." She decided to use her mother's last name at the last moment. She tried to hide her lie with a smile, but she could tell that John saw right through it by the look he gave her. She let his hand go and kept walking towards her horse, the stallion pawed at the ground, eager to start moving again. Beatrice gave him a couple of pats on his neck in an attempt to calm him down, she tightened the saddle before hauling herself up on his back.

John and Beatrice rode in silence, it was a little uncomfortable with neither of them knowing anything about each other. it didn't take long before they rode up to a ledge that overlooked the road that the wagon was going to pass through on. They came to a halt and Beatrice rested her arms on the saddlehorn while John grabbed his binoculars to see if the wagon was coming.  
"I know your name ain't Lowe." John spoke, Beatrice just looked at him with her mouth agape, "It's Morgan, isn't it?" He asked.

Beatrice let out a noise that was somewhere between a sigh and a laugh, "I forgot how fast word travels in a gang,"

"Yeah, ya can't keep a secret with so many people around."

Beatrice thought this was a good opportunity to ask the questions that had been burning at the back of her mind, "Off-topic, but what happened to your face…" She trailed off, realizing that that wasn't the best way to word her question, "I sorry! I mean the scars, how did you get them?"

John laughed at how she fumbled around with her words, "It's alright, I got attacked by wolves."

"Damn, well aren't you lucky."

John shook his head, "You really are Arthur's kid, he said the same thing."

"He's right, Y'know?"

John looked at her with a raised eyebrow, "How does bleedin', freezin', and starvin' to death on a mounting make me lucky?"

"Easy, you ain't dead." Beatrice looked at the road to see if the wagon was there yet before meeting John's eyes, "Any other man would've probably died up there, but you didn't, so you're lucky."

"Huh," He hadn't looked at it like that, "I guess you're right."

"I am most of the time," She said with a playful smile, "But that's enough chit chat 'cause I think I see our target approaching." She pointed at a wagon that was still quite a ways down the road.

John looked at it through his binoculars, "Yup, that's the one."

"How many guards?"

"Just one."

"Idiots." Beatrice smiled.

John turned to face Beatrice, "How're we gonna do this?"

Beatrice turned her horse, "I'll act as a distraction, so you can knock him out when he comes off the wagon."

"What kind of distraction are you thinking of."

"Damsel in distress." She said before riding off.

Beatrice stood at the side of the road, she could hear the wagon coming closer. "Come on Dynamite, time for our specialty," She whispered to her horse as she grabbed him by the saddle and reins, urging him to lay down. She lowered herself with him and made sure that he was laying on her leg. The wagon rode into sight, so Beatrice started yelling out.

"Sir! Sir. please you gotta help me!"

The driver slowed the wagon and stopped in front of her, "What happened, miss?"

"My- my horse collapsed on me and now I- I'm stuck." The man got down from the wagon to help her, John snuck up behind him with a rifle in his hands. "I'm real sorry about this, sir." The man was about to turn around, but the butt of John's rifle hit the back of the man's head before he could. Beatrice shrugged, "Maybe not." She gave Dynamite a couple of pats so that he would get up before rising to her feet herself.

John dragged the man off the road while Beatrice got on the wagon, "You drivin'?" John asked.

"I can do many things, but drivin' a wagon ain't one them."

\---

The sun had gone down and Arthur rode into camp, the first thing he noticed was a new horse. The stallion whinnied and threw his head as Arthur walked past him. He didn't understand why anyone would steal a horse that would clearly put up a fight, but he decided to ignore it for now and walked further into camp. Sean's speech could be heard from miles away, Arthur was glad that Sean was back, but at the same time, he wished that they would've hanged him only because of how loud he is.

Arthur grabbed a beer from one of the crates and made his way over to Mary-Beth,

"Mary-Beth."

It took Mary-Beth a moment to realize that someone spoke to her until she looked up from the photo that she was holding, "Oh, hey Arthur."

"Watchu lookin' at there?" He asked, nodding his head towards the photo. His eyes widened when he saw who was on it, he snatched the photo from Mey-Beth's hand without a warning, causing her to jump back a bit in surprise. He just stared at it, he didn't understand. The first woman he loved, the first woman to break his heart was in a photograph staring right at him. There was a girl on her right who looked just like her and on her left was a boy who looked just like him. He flipped it to see that there was writing on the back. "Beatrice and Elijah's tenth birthday.' His head was starting to hurt just thinking about it and he needed answers, "Where'd you get this?" He asked Mary-Beth.

Mary-Beth pointed at a figure that was sitting at the cliffside of camp, "From her, she-" Arthur didn't let her finish and immediately made his way towards the figure. He thought it might be Ethelyn. He was hoping that it was Ethelyn so that he could make her explain everything, why she left, who the kids were in the picture, if they were his... The closer he got the more he realized that it wasn't her. Her wavy hair, that looked dark brown from a distance, became more blonde like and her figure was smaller than Ehtelyn's.

Arthur closer and closer until he stood behind her, every question that he had left him. He just stood there, she hadn't noticed him, he took a deep breath and pulled a pack of cigarettes from his satchel. He moved to sit next to her and offered her a cigarette. She took it without looking at him, "Arthur, I'm assuming."

Maybe she had noticed him.

She got a match from her pocket and struck it on the rock under her. She placed the cigarette in her mouth and lit it, the flame illuminated her face. 'God, she looks just like Ethelyn." Arthur thought. And she did if you imagined that her hair was dark brown instead of dirty blonde and her eyes grey instead of blue-green.

"You're Ethelyn's daughter, aren't you?"

Beatrice now looked at him, "Yours too."

Arthur met her gaze, "Wouldn't have gotten these beauties," She pointed at her eyes, "if you weren't." She said. This got something like a laugh from Arthur, but it quickly faded.

"Your mother… is she…?"

Beatrice looked back at the river, "Died, about six months ago now. Consumption"

Arthur's heart dropped when he heard that, he was expecting it, but it still hurt. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Why are you here? Do you want something from me or…?"

Beatrice shook her head, "I'm not here for me or you, I'm here for my momma. She wanted me to give you this," Beatrice handed him a journal, "She wanted to give it to you herself, but she ran out of time… I'll leave right now if you want me to, but I had to fulfill her final wish."

Arthur took the leather journal from her, there was a metal flower on the front of it and a leather cord around it to keep it closed. Corners of photos and pieces of paper were sticking out, He opened the journal to look at some of the photos. There was a picture of just Elijah, "Where's your brother?" Arthur asked.

"The asshole apparently thought that finding you wasn't important and left without a word," Beatrice said in a more sad than hateful way.

"I know more people like that," Arthur said.

Beatrice looked down, "I hereby apologize on behalf of my mother."

"It's not just your mother."

Beatrice furrowed her brows and was going to ask who else, but was interrupted by something falling from the journal. Arthur thankfully caught it before it could fall down the cliff. It was a simple, but beautiful necklace, he could remember buying it for Ethelyn, It wasn't too expensive, but she loved it and never took it off. "Turn around." He told Beatrice.

"Uh… why?" She asked him

"Just do it." She sighed and turned around so that her back was facing him, He put his hand in front of her, still holding the necklace, "Pull your hair up." She once again did as told. "I want you to stay, at least if you want to."

"I'd love to," She smiled at him, "Thank you. Oh and just so you know, I ain't gonna start callin' you daddy anytime soon if ever."

Arthur laughed, "I ain't got no problem with that."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> leave a comment and a kudos if you'd like, constructive criticism is always welcome :)


	3. Chapter 3

Beatrice was bored out of her mind, she had been with the Van der Linde gang for a couple of days now. She and Arthur had talked quite a bit, she told him about the ranch she grew up on before having to flee and falling in with a gang. Arthur told her how he had met Dutch and Hosea and how her mother joined them about a year later. Beatrice loved talking to Arthur and getting to know more about him, but there was one thing she wanted more and that was to go on a job. It didn't matter with who, she just wanted to get out of camp and do something to get the adrenaline going. Arthur, Bill, and John went to an O' Driscoll camp to find Colm, she had no idea who that was or why they wanted to find and kill him, but she asked if she could come with them. Arthur refused and told her they probably needed her at camp more and to see if she could maybe help out with the girls. So here she was washing clothes, don't get me wrong, she didn't mind washing clothes, but she'd much rather go out and earn money.

After a while Beatrice decided that she deserved a smoke break, she sat at a table near the horses. she listened to Javier strumming his guitar, she put her feet on the table and tilted her head towards the sun. It was peaceful and she could fall asleep right there and then, but it didn't take long for the peace to be interrupted by loud thundering of hooves approaching camp. Beatrice opened her eyes to see Arthur and the others hitching their horses. Beatrice closed her eyes again, uninterested in what they were doing or talking about.

"Beatrice," Arthur said as he walked past her, towards Dutch's tent. Beatrice just gave him a nod without looking up and took a drag from her cigarette. She wasn't mad at him or anything, she just thought it wasn't fair that she got stuck washing clothes while he got to go out and shoot someone.

She canceled out Dutch and Artur's conversation and went back to enjoying the peace, but that, once again, didn't last long. Why would it?

"They got Micah." A young man around Beatric's age rode into camp, yelling and out of breath, "Dutch… Arthur…"

"What's going on?" Dutch asked him.

"They got Micah. He, He's been arrested for murder, He was in Strawberry and…"

"It's okay, son. Breathe..."

The young man rested his hands on his knees and took a deep breath, "They nearly lynched me. They… they got Micah in the sheriff's in Strawberry… and there's talk of hanging him."

"Here's hopin'" Beatrice couldn't but laugh a bit at Arthur's comment.

"Arthur."

"What? The fool brought this on himself. You know my feelings about him Dutch."

"You think I can't see past his bluster to the heart inside. He's a fine man."

"No, I ain't savin' that fool."

Beatrice got up, this was her chance, "I can do it."

"No.," Arthur said without even looking at her.

"Seriously? I've busted people out of jail before, I can do it." She insisted

Arthur crossed his arms and stared right into her eyes. Two could play that game, so she gave him a hard glare back. They just stood there, glaring at each other for about a minute until Arthur finally wavered, "Jezus" He muttered to himself, "Fine, just be careful."

A large smile appeared on Beatrice's face, "Thank you!" She was about to leave, but forgot one tiny detail, "Who am I looking for exactly and what does he look like?"

"Micah Bell, Blond, Blue eyes and he has a horseshoe mustache," Dutch answered.

Beatrice gave him a nod and walked to her tent to get herself ready.

\---

Beatrice was right outside of Strawberry, she had been there briefly when she was on her way to Valentine, so she knew exactly where the sheriff's office was. She got a bottle of whiskey out of her saddlebag, she took a swig and poured some over her clothes. If she was going to appear drunk she had to smell like it. She rode further into the small town, slumping in her saddle and leaning to the side a bit. Beatrice hitched her horse outside of the trackers hotel, she made a scene of falling on her ass when dismounting. Heads turned and whispers could be heard, exactly what she wanted.

She stumbled around for a bit to look for a victim, there was a man outside of the general store. He was drunk and looking at her with hungry eyes, he will do. Beatrice took another swig from her whiskey before throwing the bottle on the ground. She grabbed her gun from its holster and shot in the air one time. People started yelling and running away, one of them ran into the sheriff's office. A deputy came out, he looked around for a bit before locating Beatrice, who was still pointing her gun at the sky. He walked over to her with big steps, "Miss, put the gun down and move along."

She stared the man up and down while lowering her gun, she looked to her side if the drunken man was still there. He was still there eyeing her, but the hunger was replaced with fear. She smiled before shooting the man right between his eyes.

"Alright, that's it! You're coming with me!"

Beatrice holstered her gun and raised her hands, "Oh come on, I was just tryin' to have some fun." She said, slurring her words.

"You've had enough fun now, Miss." He lowered her hands behind her back and pushed her towards the sheriff's office. She stumbled over her own feet and heavily leaned into the deputy, he struggled to keep her on her feet all the way down to the cells. The deputy was about to grab the key from his pocket, but he jumped back when he felt Beatrice's hand grab his crotch. She turned around, pressed him against one of the cells, and started kissing him. she quickly grabbed his gun from his belt, and put it between her back and the waist of her skirt.

He pushed her off him, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Having some more fun?" She looked at him with the most innocent smile she could manage, "A girl has her needs after all."

The deputy scoffed before opening the cell and throwing her in. Beatrice laughed as she watched him lock the cell and walk away, But her laugh faded as soon as he was out of sight. She wiped her mouth and spit on the floor while turning around to see her fellow cellmates. One of them had dark hair and was dressed in black and green. The other was wearing a red shirt, had blond hair, blue eyes, and a horseshoe mustache. He had to be the one.

"Micah Bell?" She asked him.

"Who's askin'?"

"Let's get us out of here first, you can ask questions later." Beatrice retrieved a lockpick from her hair and started to unlock the cell. It took a bit of prying and wiggling, but she got it open. She handed Micah the gun that she stole from the deputy and her own gun from under her skirt. Beatrice hadn't even left the cell yet and a gunshot already rang out behind her. The dark-haired man was now lying dead on the floor. "what the hell was that for?"

"He was an O' Driscoll."

"What is with you people and those damned O' Driscolls?"

Micah ignored her question and walked up the stairs, Beatrice following close behind. They gunned down the sheriff and two of his deputies, there was one deputy left and Micah was about to shoot him, but Beatrice stopped him, "He's unarmed, let him go." Micah gave her a questioning look but obliged. Beatrice gave the deputy a quick wink before following Micah out the door. He walked passed the horses and further down the road, shooting law left and right, "Where the hell are you goin'?" Beatrice asked.

"I have some unfinished business."

"Jesus Christ." Beatrice followed to wherever he was going, gunning down lawmen left and right. She had no problem with killing people, but this was a bit excessive. It went on like that until they stopped in front of a house. There were no lawmen left, but reinforcements were certainly on their way. "we should get outta here."

"Calm yourself, woman. Like I said, I need to see someone." He pounded on the door, yelling out for some man named Skinny. Beatrice was starting to regret this, she thought it would be easy to just bust him out of jail, flee the town and ride back to camp, but no, Micah just had to make a house call in the middle of a shootout that he started. Micah shot Skinny and a woman named Maddy, before coming back out the door.

"What was so important that you had to make a damn housecall?"

"They had my guns," Micah said, shooting the reinforcements that came riding into town. Beatrice decided that asking him why his guns were so important wasn't worth it and followed him towards the horses. They rode out of town, successfully getting rid of all the law.

They halted their horses in the middle of the road when they were sure that they were in the clear, "Now," Micah started, "who are you?" She told him her name and Micah immediately came to the revelation that she was Arthur's daughter, "Oh my," He chuckled.

"I'm surprised it took you so long to figure out, the others knew within a day."

"I didn't exactly have time to have a good look at you, But heading off to my little camp round back of Strawberry… I'm coming back to camp once I can give Dutch a peace offering." Micah was about to ride off, but Beatrice stopped him.

"Oh no you don't, I had to convince Arthur to let me do this, so I ain't going back empty-handed." She reached into her saddlebag to retrieve some money and handed it to Micah, "You give him this and make up some bullshit story about how you got it." Micah reached out to grab the cash, but Beatrice retracted it, "You owe me."

"Of course," Beatrice gave him the money, "Thank you."

\---

The sun was already starting to come up when they arrived at camp, Micah went to Dutch to give him the money and Beatrice made her way to the campfire. Breaking Micah out of jail turned out to be more tiresome than she thought it would, no one warned her about how reckless he could be. While walking to the campfire she grabbed a beer, intending to drink some and relax.

It didn't take long for Micah to join her, "What'd ya tell 'im?"

"That we came across a banking coach and robbed it."

"Heh, we better rob a banking coach for real sometime," She looked at him, "I'm gonna need that money back."

"Yeah, yeah, I'll figure something out."

"You better."

It fell silent, the sun had fully come up and Beatrice was starting to doze off. If she fell asleep now she would sleep for the rest of the day, which wasn't a good idea. She said her goodbyes to Micah and got up to walk around camp, she had to find something to do. She got the idea to take up guard duty, so she walked to the outskirts of camp only to be stopped by Miss Grimshaw, "Miss Morgan"

She turned around to face him, "Yes, Miss Grimshaw?"

"Could you please go into town and see what Arthur and Lenny are up to? They should've been back now."

Beatrice blinked a couple of times to clear her vision, "uh yeah, of course."

Grimshaw gave her a nod as a thank you and walked off. Beatrice walked to her horse, She mounted her horse with a yawn. Sure she wanted something to do, but this wasn't what she had in mind.

She rode out of camp and into Valentine. She saw Arthur's horse outside of the saloon and hitched her stallion next to the mare. She walked the steps and into the saloon, she looked around to see if Arthur and Lenny were still inside. They weren't.

"Have you seen two fellers, Arthur and Lenny-"

The bartender cut her off, "Lenny? Yeah, I've seen him. You should start looking at the sheriff's office."

Beatrice sighed out a quick thank you and walked towards the sheriff's office, when she went inside she saw Arthur and Lenny both in different cells. Beatrice sighed at their state, they were covered in mud and fast asleep.

"They with you?" The deputy asked.

"Yeah, what the hell did they do?"

"Drunken violence, they're lucky no one got killed. ten dollars and they're free."

"Goddamn idiots," She muttered under her breath as she fished some money out of her pockets. She only had thirty dollars left after giving most of her money to Micah. she threw the ten dollars on the desk and walked over to the cells. She unholstered her gun and flipped it so she could hold it by the barrel, she dragged the butt of the gun against the steel bars of the cell. The sound that erupted from it wouldn't bother anyone too much, unless you have a hangover of course.

Lenny immediately sat up and Arthur nearly fell off the bed.

"Come on boys, let's go."

"Could you keep it down a bit?" Lenny asked while the deputy opened his cell and moved on to Arthur's.

"No! Now let's go!" Beatrice said, they could hear the deputy chuckling to himself when they walked out the door. Lenny threw up as soon as they were outside, Arthur almost threw up himself at the sight of it and Beatrice thought it was just plain disgusting.

"So… that was a quiet drink?" Lenny asked.

"The first one was pretty quiet."

"Yeah, the first one was pretty quiet."

"At least it took your mind off goddamn Micah." Arthur turned to Beatrice, "Speaking of Micah, how'd it go"

"Killed more people that I'd've liked to, but" She sighed, "it's done now and he's back at camp."

"I probably should've warned you about that."

"ya think?" Beatrice walked to her horse. "but like I said, it's done now and I want to go back to camp."

The three of them mounted their horses and rode back to camp without another word being said. It gave Beatrice some time to think about everything, but mostly about what happened in Strawberry. She didn't think her plan through, that man might've been drunk, but he was most likely innocent and didn't deserve to die. She should've taken her time and thought of something different.

"Beatrice?" She shot her head up at the sound of Arthur's voice, "You alright there?"

She gave him a quick nod and a smile, "yeah, just tired."

"Alright then."

They barely stepped foot in camp before Stauss approached Arthur, "Mister Morgan."

"Yes, Stauss."

"It's that fellow, Downes."

Downes? Beatrice thought to herself. Could be Thomas. She wasn't going to take any chances, if it was Thomas, well, Arthur would probably beat him to death.

She got back on her horse and rode out to Downes Ranch.

\---

"Downes!" Beatrice's fist collided with the door multiple times until Archie opened the door.

"Beatrice? What are you doing here?"

"Are your parents home?"

"No, why?" He asked.

"Alright, Do- do you know if your dad took a loan from someone?"

"Yeah, why are you asking these questions?"

"Do you have the money that you owe?" She didn't know what she was going to do if they didn't. There she goes again, running into something without a plan.

"No, but you didn't answer my question." Archie was confused and starting to get impatient

"Shit," Beatrice ran a hand down her face, "I found my dad, but-"

Archie cut her off, "Really? That's great."

"Yeah, but he'll be coming here to collect the money if you don't have it he'll- I don't know what he'll do." That was a lie, she knew exactly what he'll do, but she couldn't say it.

Archie just stood there, he didn't know what to say, and neither did Beatrice. There had to be something she could do, that's when she remembered the bounty poster she out of the corner of her eye in the sheriff's office. She walked off the porch and mounted her horse.

"Only open the door for your parents and tell them what I told you if they come back before I do, Understood?"

Archie nodded, "What are you gonna do?"

"What I'm good at."

\---

"Back so soon?" The same deputy that was with Arthur and Lenny asked.

Beatrice took a bounty poster off the wall, 'Benedict Albright' it said, "Any idea where I can find him?"

"His last known location was out by the gorge," The sheriff answered, "Are you sure you uh…" He looked her up and down, "can bring him in?"

"What? Because I'm a woman?" She scoffed, "Yeah, I'm sure."

She walked out and made for the gorge. It wasn't long before she arrived, she could see smoke from the distance and just followed that. He was sitting on a ledge in front of a campfire.

"Benedict Albright?"

He got up, startled to see hear his name, "uh no, not me, Ma'am."

liar.

"That's a shame, cause my mother is real sick. She's gonna die if I don't find him," Her eyes started to tear up, not because she's a good actress, but because it hurt to talk about her.

"Well if that's the case," He grabbed a bottle and held it out for Beatrice to grab, "anything for a sick woman."

She grabbed him by the wrist and turned him around, a swift kick to the back of his knee brought him to the ground, "I advise you stop lying and shut up." She hit him on the back of his head to knock him out. She tied up his arms and legs and put him on the back of her horse.

She dragged Benedict inside when she arrived at the sheriff's office, not being strong enough to carry him and her growing headache wasn't helping. But that didn't matter, she got the bounty and she got her money, now she had to race back to Downes Ranch in the hopes of beating Arthur there.

She didn't. Arthur was standing right there, about to hit Thomas right in the face, "Arthur, wait!" she yelled out.

Arthur stopped, he dropped his fist when he saw Beatrice, "What are you doin' here?"

She ran up to him with the bit of energy that she had left, "How much does he owe you?" She asked out of beath.

"Why do ya wanna know?" He asked, Arthur couldn't have been more confused at that moment.

"Just tell me!" Beatrice demanded.

"Sixty dollars."

Beatrice reached in her pocket to get the money, the bounty money wasn't enough, so she had to ad some of her own to it leaving her with just ten dollars. She shoved the money in Arthur's hand, "There," Her breathing quickened, and her head was spinning, "That should…" There were spots of black in her vision.

Breathe.

"It…" She could hear that Arthur was saying something, but she couldn't make out what.

Breathe.

Her legs gave out, she grabbed Arthur's sleeve in an attempt to stay standing, but she took him with her to the ground. Her vision went completely black and she couldn't hear anything anymore, she felt a hand on her cheek, but that feeling quickly faded.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for taking so long, I was struggling so much with writing this chapter you don't even know. I'm not too happy with how it turned out, but it's good enough for me. I hope you enjoy it, there will be some more notes at the end about things that I can't say here, cause they're spoilers.

Beatrice woke up in a cold sweat, she could vaguely remember the ride back to camp and being carried to her tent. She knows exactly why she passed out like that, it had happened before. It wasn't something to get too worried about, but it wasn't anything good either. Beatrice stood up, her head was spinning and she lost her footing a couple of times, but she eventually got out of the tent. She looked up, expecting to see a light blue sky and the sun, but was met with dark blue and the moon. She started walking, but didn't get far before she tripped over her own feet, she readied herself for the impact of the ground, but someone caught her. She looked up to see who it was and was met with Abigail's worried expression.

"You alright there?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine, thank you." Beatrice looked around trying to find Arthur through her blurry vision. He was sitting at the campfire by himself. "I'm gonna go talk to Arthur, thanks again for catching me."

Abigail looked over to where Arthur was sitting, "Need some help getting over there?"

"Oh no, I think I got it," She gave Abigail a reassuring smile before straightening herself and making her way over to the campfire. She nearly tripped and fell again a couple of times making her think that maybe she should have accepted Abigail's help. It took her a while, but she got there eventually. She tried to step over the log that Arthur was sitting on, but standing on one leg made her lose her balance and she almost fell over again. She put her hand on Arthur's shoulder to regain her balance which caused him to look over to her. He got up to help her sit down. They didn't say anything, they just sat there in silence for a while staring at the fire. All that could be heard was the crackling of the fire and the various noises of sleeping people.

"I'm sorry if I scared you back there," Beatrice broke the silence. Arthur shifted a little, he didn't like to admit it, but she did scare him. She was fine one moment and the next she was on the floor.

"What happened?" Arthur looked at her just to a smile growing on her face. It confused him, he had no idea what was so funny about it.

"I didn't get a whole lot of sleep and I was busy all day long, so I… I kinda forgot to eat…"

"How do you forget to eat?" Arthur asked, even more confused than before.

"I just forget when I'm really busy and…" Her smile faded a little, but didn't completely disappear, "It's just that momma or Elijah used to remind me to eat something if that happened."

Arthur pinched the bridge of his nose, he reached in his satchel and got out a can of peaches and a fork, he opened the can with his knife and handed it to Beatrice, "Eat."

Beatrice's face lit up and the smile reappeared on her face bigger than before, she took the can and didn't hesitate to start eating. Arthur laughed at the sight of her just shoveling down peaches like it was nothing.

"What?" Beatrice asked with big blue eyes and half a peach in her mouth, which caused Arthur to laugh harder. "I fuckin' love peaches, alright?" She said after she swallowed the peach.

"I didn't say anythin'" Arthur felt something warm growing within his chest when she smiled at him, she had smiled at him before, but never this genuine. The feeling reminded him of when he saw Isaac for the first time.

Arthur's thoughts got cut short when Beatrice got up after finishing her peaches. Damn that kid can eat fast, Arthur thought before getting up himself. Beatrice stretched and yawned, "I'm gonna go back to sleep and you look tired, so you should too."

"I will." She was right, he was tired; he hadn't closed an eye ever since she passed out.

Beatrice smiled and pulled him into a hug, Arthur tensed at the gesture. No one has given him a hug in years, but he returned it after a couple of seconds.

"You stayed up for me, didn't you?" Her voice was muffled by being buried in his shoulder; not being quite tall enough to reach above it.

Arthur chuckled, "Yeah, you got me."

Beatrice broke away from the hug and gave him one last smile, "Goodnight." She turned around and walked to her tent.

"Goodnight."

Arthur watched her, that warm feeling never left his chest and he had a smile on his face. There was something about her, she was strong and vulnerable at the same time. He felt the need to protect her the way he couldn't protect Isaac.

\---

Weeks have passed and Beatrice was allowed to tag along with Arthur on more jobs because she more than proved herself after busting Micah out of jail. She stole a stagecoach with him and Hosea. They did it at night, Beatrice and Arthur went inside to rob the house while Hosea took the stagecoach. They got a couple hundred dollars from that and Dutch was happy. A couple of days later John, Charles, Arthur, and Sean robbed a train while Beatrice and Micah robbed a banking coach.

It took some convincing to let her go on a job with just Micah. Arthur didn't like the idea one bit, but he eventually let her go.

Robbing the coach seemed to go really well, they got it without missing a shot. It was easy, at least they thought it was until they got ambushed by O'Driscoll's. It was starting to get more and more clear why the Van der Linde's wanted them dead and vice versa. It took a while, but Beatrice and Micah got rid of them and they rode back to camp with just a couple scratches and an extra twelve hundred dollars in their pockets.

Arthur and Abigail had been coming up to Beatrice with snacks throughout the day to make sure she didn't pass out again. She didn't appreciate Arthur telling Abigail about it at first, Beatrice didn't want to be seen as weak, but Abigail assured her that that wasn't the case. It took a little getting used to, they treated her like she could starve to death any second.

Beatrice stood next to her horse with a mostly empty cup of coffee in one hand and a cigarette in the other. She was thinking about maybe going out for a ride, the last time when she was around this many people for more than a couple of hours was on the ranch and she was getting kind of sick of it.

She watched Arthur talk to Abigail, she couldn't hear it, but Arthur didn't seem too happy about whatever Abigail asked him. He made his way over to Jack who was sitting close to where Beatrice was standing. He said something about going fishing and Beatrice thought that she might tag along. Arthur mounted his horse and pulled Jack on with him shortly after. Beatrice dumped the remaining bit of coffee on the floor and put the cup in her saddlebag while Arthur and Jack rode out of camp. She mounted her horse and caught up to them.

Arthur looked to his right to see Beatrice riding next to him, "Where are you goin'?"

Beatrice flashed him a smile, "Wherever you are."

"Why?"

She shrugged, "Because I'm bored, I guess."

Arthur nodded at her and continued his conversation with Jack until they arrived at the river. Arthur taught Jack how to fish while Beatrice sat next to them, she stared out into the river and watched how the fish circled around the bait. It didn't take long until Jack got bored and started doing something else.

"Not catching much there, are ya?" She said with a slight laugh behind her words.

Arthur looked down at her and raised his eyebrows, "What? You think you can do better?"

Beatrice laughed, "Definitely not, I'm better at hunting. Elijah, however, wouldn't hesitate to take that rod from you."

Arthur slowly nodded and focused his gaze back on the river, Beatrice didn't speak of Elijah often, but there was always something of a smile on her face when she did. Arthur wanted to know more about him; not sure if they'll ever get to meet, so he decided to just ask, "What's he like?"

"Who? Eli?"

Arthur nodded again.

"Well…" Beatrice thought about how she was going to say this in the nicest way possible, "He's kind of an asshole," There wasn't a nice way to say it, "He left me in the middle of nowhere for fucks sake, I could've died!" Beatrice kept ranting on about how she hated him and that she didn't care if he was alive or not. Maybe asking about Elijah wasn't such a good idea, and Maybe interrupting Beatrice wasn't such a good idea either, but he had to do it.

"You don't mean that."

Beatrice confirmed that it wasn't a good idea by the way she looked at him, she was mad and didn't appreciate Arthur telling her what she did and didn't mean, "How the hell would you know that?" She got up and looked him in the eye, "You know nothing about me." Her expression softened when she saw the hurt look in his eyes and averted her gaze, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes, "I'm sorry… I just-" She took a deep breath and started walking towards her horse, "I'll see you back at camp."

Arthur wished that he could've said something, but she was right, he didn't know her. He wanted to though, but giving Beatrice her space was the best option right now.

\---

She shouldn't have done that. Shouldn't have said those things about Elijah, Shouldn't have yelled at Arthur. He was right now that she thought about it; she really didn't mean it. Elijah was her brother and she loved him, even if he left her for dead. Beatrice hadn't gone straight back to camp, she had to blow some steam off and decided that she would go hunting. She had managed to catch a rabbit and a deer before riding back to camp. She asked John to carry the deer for her after already struggling to get it on her horse. Beatrice leaned against Pearson's table with a sigh and looked around for Arthur, she had to apologize. Not just a quick sorry so that she could leave, a real apology.

She spotted Arthur talking to Miss Grimshaw, It was hard to hear them from the distance, but she could make out something about a letter and a woman named Mary.

"What're you thinkin' about?"

Beatrice looked at John who was now standing next to her, also leaning on the table, "What?"

"You were staring at nothing, so there must be something on your mind."

"Nothing, really. Just…" She bit the inside of her cheek before speaking again, "Who's Mary?"

John scratched the back of his head, he was not expecting that question, "She's uh… she's Arthur's ex-fiancée."

"Oh- wait. Arthur was engaged?"

"Yeah, why are you asking me about Mary anyway?"

Beatrice nodded her head towards Arthur, "He got a letter from her."

John moved his head to look at him and saw he was reading the letter, he looked sad, "Well, that can't be anything good.

Arthur placed the letter and his satchel, Beatrice's gaze followed him as he moved toward her and John. He walked past them without saying a word, he didn't even look at them. She moved away from the table and watched Arthur mount his horse and ride out of camp.

"what are you planning?" John asked.

Beatrice looked over her shoulder, "I'm not planning anything." She said as she stepped towards her horse.

"You're gonna follow him, aren't ya?"

She gave him an innocent smile, "Of course not."

John shook his head with a slight laugh and went on to do something else.

\---

Beatrice did indeed follow Arthur, she couldn't help it, her curiosity got the better of her and she had to know who this Mary was. She made sure to keep her distance, but that didn't stop her from flinching every time Dynamite stepped in a twig. She stayed behind him until he rode up to a small farm on the outskirts of Valentine, Beatrice diverted off the road and onto a small hill. She dismounted and shooed him away, crouching down she slowly made her way past the barn, and to the side of the house.

Beatrice listened in on the conversation between Mary and Arthur. They both sounded sad and were hesitant with their words, which was to be expected since they haven't seen each other in years. Mary needed help with her little brother, Arthur didn't agree to help her right away. He went on about how her family didn't like him and that he wasn't good enough for them, but he eventually agreed by asking where Jamie was.

"I owe you."

"You already owe me."

Hearing their last exchange made her think of something, something incredibly stupid, something she definitely shouldn't do, but something she is going to do. Beatrice walked back to the road and waited on her horse until Mary exited the house to go to the train station. Beatrice moved her horse into a slow-paced after Mary passed her, she didn't worry too much about the distance; Mary didn't know her anyway. Beatrice walked into the train station when Mary was just starting to sit down.

"Mary?"

Mary looked up from her book, confusion, and surprise written all over her face, "Do I know you?"

"No uh, no you don't," Beatrice moved her hat more towards the back of her head so that Mary could see her face properly, "I'm Beatrice Morgan… Arthur's daughter."

Mary's eyes widened, "I- he never told me he had a daughter."

"Well, he couldn't have, he only found out a few months ago."

Beatrice took the seat next to Mary, she should have planned out what she was going to say before approaching her. They sat in silence for a while, an uncomfortable one. Beatrice tried to offer Mary a cigarette, but she declined, making the situation more awkward. Every time Beatrice went to say something she closed her mouth again, she knew what she wanted to say, but not how.

"Is there a reason why you came to see me?"

There it was. The perfect opportunity to just blurt it out, and she did. and then she wished she didn't. The expression and Mary's face was… not good, not in the slightest. Beatrice prepared herself to get yelled at or something, but the next words that left Mary's mouth weren't directed at her.

"Jamie!"

Oh shit. It was good that Mary was reunited with her brother, what wasn't good was that Arthur came back while Beatrice was still in the train station. She quickly grabbed the newspaper from the table and pretended to read it and hoped that Arthur hadn't already seen her.

"Beatrice."

She lowered the newspaper revealing a sweet smile, "Arthur."

"What the hell are you doin' here?"

"I uh… I was just having a lovely conversation with Mary over here." She gestured over to Mary who was grabbing her bags. Arthur shook his head and dismissed Beatrice for now, He took Mary's bags and walked her to the train. When she got on the train she turned around and glared at Beatrice for a second before focusing on Arthur.

"I… you're… oh you'll never change. I know that."

It took everything in Beatrice's power to not go up to her and yell to her about how Arthur is a great person, maybe not great, but better than most outlaws and that he deserved so much better than here. But instead of doing all that she just scoffed. Arthur turned around to face Beatrice, there was a variety of emotions displayed on his face, but he was quick to hide them.

"What did you say to her?"

"Oh nothin' important, really." Beatrice turned around and started to leave.

"Don't lie to me, I saw the way she glared at you."

Beatrice stopped in her tracks and hung her head low, "I told her…" She took a deep breath before continuing, "to go on a date with you instead of just asking you to run her errands." She spoke so fast, she just hoped that Arthur understood what she said.

"Jesus Christ, kid." Arthur sounded disappointed, which is worse than mad in a way.

Beatrice turned around with downcast eyes, "I'm sorry for following you and talking to your ex," She looked up and sighed, "I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier today, I- I shouldn't have done that. I'm really so-"

"I'm gonna stop you before you say sorry again," Arthur chuckled. "I get it, I shouldn't have asked."

"No, you had every right to ask," Beatrice smiled at him, "Besides, he is your son after all. How about I buy you a drink as a formal apology?"

Arthur thought for a moment, it was still early, but he could definitely use a drink after all that, "Sure, why not.'

"Great!" They started walking towards the saloon, "Y'know, I'm actually glad she didn't ask you out on a date."

Arthur raised his eyebrows, "And why's that?"

"It's just that you deserve much better than her and she's kind of a b-" Arthur elbowed her in the ribs before she could finish her sentence, "Unpleasant woman. She's an unpleasant woman and I don't like her."

Arthur shook his head, she wasn't the only one that didn't like Mary. He's pretty sure Abigail didn't like her, but she barely knew her so that wasn't much to off. He placed a hand on Beatrice's shoulder and squeezed it a little.

They walked up to the bar when they entered the saloon and Beatrice placed some money on the counter, "A bottle of whiskey with two glasses please."

"Wait," Arthur blinked a few times, "a bottle?"

"Yeah, a bottle." Beatrice moved away from the bar and sat at an empty table.

"I thought we were just going for a drink, not a whole damn bottle."

"Oh come on," She poured him a drink, "We won't end up in jail, I promise."

Arthur looked at the drink, then at Beatrice, "Oh, what the hell,"

It was past midnight, the bottle was almost empty and Beatrice was singing very loud and off-key. Arthur wasn't half as drunk as her, sure he drank quite a bit, but not enough to not remember what he did the next day. He was talking to some guy about who knows what, until Beatrice came up to him with the biggest smile on her face and grabbed his hand.

"We gotta go, right now." Her words were slurred and barely audible.

"Why?"

Beatrice pulled him towards the door, "Trust me, now come on."

Arthur said a quick goodbye to the stranger and followed her out the door and to their horses, he had to prevent her from falling multiple times, because she couldn't walk straight and was constantly tripping over her feet. They stopped by their horses and Beatrice just started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

She reached into her pockets and pulled out money, rings, watched, and other valuables. "I robbed every goddamn bastard in that place," She said, way too loud and still laughing.

"Jesus, put that away and keep your voice down,"

"Sorry," She whispered, she tried to open one of her saddlebags to place the valuables in it but was clearly failing to do so. Arthur opened it for her and laughed at the state she was in; fumbling around and almost dropping everything she was holding. She tried to put her foot in the stirrup but fell backwards as soon as she lifted her foot off the ground. Luckily Arthur stood right behind her and was able to catch her in time, he helped to her feet and turned her to face him. He grabbed her by the waist and lifted her on the back of her horse, "I can ride myself."

Arthur laughed and lifted himself into the saddle, "I don't think so, kid. Just don't throw up on me," He said, he whistled for his own horse to follow and rode out of town.

Beatrice scoffed and pouted, drunk her didn't agree with this one bit, but sober her would be thankful. She wrapped her arms around his waist and buried her face between his shoulder blades. "You should read momma's journal if you want to know more about Elijah."

Arthur looked over his shoulder and was about to say something, but Beatrice already forgot what she said and started singing Ring Dang Doo at an extremely high volume.

\---

Beatrice woke up everyone in camp with her singing, but she shut up and fell asleep as soon as her head hit her pillow. Arthur sighed in relief and walked towards his own tent, he laid down on his cot and tried to sleep, but found himself unable to. He kept thinking about what Beatrice said, he hadn't opened the journal since he first got it. He wouldn't want anyone to read his journal and thought it was a violation of privacy, but curiosity got the better of him. He opened the chest where he kept his clothes and reached for the book at the bottom of it. He sat back on his cot and opened the journal on the first page only to be surprised to be met with an envelope with his name on it. He slowly opened it, the letter was stained with tears and blood spatters, he took a deep breath and started reading it.

_Dear Arthur,_

_If you're reading this, you know that I was pregnant, gave birth to two beautiful children and that I'm dead. It's weird to say that I'm dead when I'm still breathing, barely mind you, but still breathing. I got diagnosed with tuberculosis sometime last year and it made me think about all the unfinished business that I have. Telling you about Elijah and Beatrice was one of those things, but I have no idea where the hell you are and I'm running out of time._

_I want to give you this journal, I wrote a bunch of letters in it meant for you, but I was too cowardly to ever send the first ones and after a while, I realized you guys would've moved and I had no idea where to send them. There's eighteen years worth of information in this thing and I want you to read it._

_Please take care of them for me, and take care of yourself as well. I wish I didn't leave, I left because I wanted a safe life for them, but that didn't work out. I still love you and I think about you every day. I hope you found someone to love again, someone you can spend the rest of your life with, someone who tells you everything and doesn't keep things from you that you have every right to know about. I'm sorry._

_I left because I was scared, I didn't know how you would react and teenage me thought it was a good idea to just leave without a word instead of just talking about it with you. I'm not asking you to ever forgive me for that, but I am gonna ask that you keep them from doing reckless things._

_Good luck with reading all the letters._

_Love,_  
_Ethelyn Lowe._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted to start with the reason why Beatrice passed out. I don't know if it is weird, but I just used something from personal experience. I sometimes get so busy that I forget my basic human needs and pass the fuck out.
> 
> Next is Ethelyn's letter. I had no idea what the hell I wanted to put in it and I'm not sure if it's good. It's 5 am and I just need to finish this chapter and the idea of Ethelyn writing a letter to Arthur and him reading it (Me writing it out) was great. I'm not sure if it was a good choice but whatever.
> 
> I also wanted to add more information about Elijah, but sometimes your characters do other things than what you had in mind T_T
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, please leave a comment telling me what you loved, what you hated, what you think I could've handled better, anything really. I'm gonna go sleep till like 6 pm now :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello... been awhile. two months and one week to be exact. I'm so sorry, but it's finally here! I messed around with the mission order here and I've done goofed a little. I hope Y'all enjoy this very late chapter! :)

Beatrice slowly opened her eyes but quickly closed them again, she might've been inside her tent, but the light from the sun shone right through the white fabric. She tried to remember what the hell she did last night, but the feeling of someone trying to squeeze her brain out of her skull prevented her from doing much thinking.

She felt around for her hat with her eyes still closed, she grabbed ahold of a pair of scissors, a guitar, a pack of cigarettes, and many other things, but not her hat. "Where in the hell-"

"Lookin' for this?"

Beatrice shot her head up in the direction of the voice, "Arthur?" He hummed as a response. She looked at him through one squinted eye, all she saw was a hand holding a hat sticking through flaps of her tent. It didn't take long for her to notice the god awful smell that came off it when she took it, "Where the hell did you find it?" She asked him once she came out of her tent, her hat covering her eyes to shield them from the sun.

"In a pile of horse shit," Arthur chuckled at the groan that came from Beatrice.

"That explains the smell," Beatrice pinched the bridge of her nose in the hopes of making her headache less painful, "Why'd you let me drink so damn much?"

"Hey, don't blame me, you're the one that bought a whole bottle."

"Yeah, well… you could've stopped me," She argued.

"And you would've listened to me?" Arthur said, the corner of his mouth slightly turning upwards.

"No, but you could've at least tried or I don't know," She shrugged, "just taken the bottle away from me."

"I could've, but I wouldn't have been able to see you get booze blind."

"Great, while you got to laugh at my state of stupidity, I get to live with the consequences," Beatrice feigned anger, but the smile growing on her face gave her away, "Anyway, I'm gonna go sit right over there," She pointed at a table, "and wallow in self-pity."

Arthur laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder, "I gotta go meet John in town, I'll see ya when I get back."

Beatrice nodded and went to sit at the table with her head in her arms. Every movement she made caused her head to pound, she tells herself that she won't ever drink that much again, but she damn well knows that that's a fucking lie. She closed her eyes and tried to cancel out all the noise around her in the hopes that it would reduce her headache. Bad idea. It didn't take long for her to forget that she was in the middle of camp and dozed off.

"And they call me lazy," Sean laughed, he clearly didn't give a shit about Beatrice's raging hangover.

She slowly raised her head, eyes half-lidded and a pissed off look on her face, "Say one more word and I will shove that rifle up your ass and pull the trigger." She wouldn't actually do it, but she also couldn't think of a better threat.

At first, Sean just stared at her in disbelief, but he started laughing before long. Beatrice was not amused at all, luckily Hosea was there to shoo Sean away.

"Weren't you supposed to be on guard duty an hour ago?"

The look on Sean's face was enough to tell that he knew that he was in trouble. He quickly walked off to do what he was supposed to. Beatrice hummed as a thank you to Hosea and let her head fall back into her arms, but looked back up when she heard something being placed in front of her, "What's that?"

"Something to help with that hangover."

Beatrice sniffed at the drink and turned up her nose and reluctantly took a sip, the taste was much worse than the smell. She coughed, quite violently, after swallowing the liquid, "Jesus Christ, that is the most disgusting thing I've ever tasted!"

"I said it would help with your hangover, not that it would taste good," Hosea laughed.

"Can't I just get drunk again? I might have to deal with feeling like shit again tomorrow, but at least I won't have to taste that again."

"No, now drink it."

Beatrice looked at the cup and pinched her nose before downing half of the liquid, she paused, gagged, downed the rest, and gagged again. She placed the cup back down on the table with more force than necessary and looked over to Hosea just to see him smiling at her, "Is my misery really that entertaining?"

"No, I was just thinkin'."

"Whatcha thinkin' 'bout?" She asked him.

"It's a good thing you found us," Hosea said.

Beatrice raised her brows, "That so?"

Hosea nodded, "Arthur seems happier now that you're here,"

"I'm happy to be here," her eyes trailed down to her hands, "happy to… not be alone anymore."

He grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze, "You won't ever be alone again, dear." The corner of his mouth turned upwards when she looked at him, "Just… Arthur has been through a lot in his life, lost people that he held dear. I don't know what he'd do if he lost you too." Beatrice nodded in understanding. She was curious who he'd lost, but didn't ask knowing it wasn't Hosea's place to say. Hosea gave her hand another squeeze and got up. He placed a hand on her back, "Just be careful," He said and walked away, leaving Beatrice alone with her thoughts.

She brought her hands up to her face and sighed. Dying wasn't something she was concerned about ever since Elijah left, if it happened it happened. But she didn't realize until now that she had family and friends again. a reason to not act recklessly. a reason to live.

"Miss Morgan!"

Beatrice jumped a bit in her seat and did her best not to let out a yelp, Grimshaw never failed to scare the living daylights out of her. "Yes Miss Grimshaw?" Beatrice said while slowly turning.

"Are you just gonna sit around all day or are you actually gonna do something?"

"I'll get right to it Miss Grimshaw."

"Good," She said before she turned around and went to the other girls to tell them the same thing she told Beatrice.

\---

"You're clearly sweet on John, It's so obvious," Mary-Beth said, she had a twinkle in her eye that always appeared when she found something new to talk about.

"You're delusional," Beatrice said without looking up from the clothes she was washing.

"Bullshit," Karen chimed in, "I saw the way you smiled at him by the butcher table yesterday." Mary-Beth agreed with a nod.

Beatrice sighed and dropped the shirt she was holding in the water, "It was just a smile, it didn't mean anything." Karen and Mary-Beth looked at her like they didn't believe a word she said, and rightfully so. Sure, she did like John, but he's married and it wasn't like she'd have a chance anyhow. "Alright, if smiling at someone means you're sweet on them, then you," She pointed at Mary-Beth, "are sweet on Arthur, I can tell by the way you smile at him every time he greets you."

Mary-Beth splashed water at her and Karen burst out laughing, "I don't like him like that! He's just a friend."

Beatrice smiled and splashed some water right back at her, "John is also just a friend, now drop it and get back to work before-"

"We're packing up and moving out!" Dutch interrupted her from the other side of camp, the girls got up and walked over to him.

"What happened?" Karen asked.

"Cornwall," John replied.

"Of Course Cornwall happened, that's what you get for robbing one of his goddamn trains," Beatrice said. She ignored the stern look Dutch gave her while he told miss Grimshaw to take care of Stauss and noticed that Arthur wasn't with them, "Where's my-" She stopped when she noticed what she was about to say, "where's Arthur?"

"Buying us some time," Dutch said before walking off to his tent. Beatrice scoffed, Arthur could handle himself, but holding off Cornwall's men all by himself couldn't be easy. She checked if her gun was loaded and was about to see if she could help, but John stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder.

"He got this."

Beatrice looked at him and was met with a reassuring smile, "Are you sure?"

"He'll be fine, you just worry too much."

Beatrice took a deep breath and holstered her gun, "You're right. Thanks," She gave him a small smile, "Probably would've gotten myself in a heap of trouble if I went out there."

John gave her shoulder a small squeeze but didn't remove his hand. They just stood there, looking into each other eyes. Beatrice's heart was practically pounding out of her chest and she could feel her face heat up, she quickly looked down; hoping to hide her face in the shadow of her hat. This never would've happened if Mary-Beth had just kept her mouth shut, Beatrice thought, even though that most likely wouldn't have changed a thing.

"I- I should start packing," She turned around and quickly walked to her tent, leaving John behind. Beatrice saw Mary-Beth and Karen giggling from the corner of her eye, she was never going to hear the end of this.

\---

It didn't take Arthur too long to return from wherever he led Cornwall's men to. It also didn't take long for him to leave again with Charles to find a new camping spot. He stayed there while Charles came back to inform the others that they found a place.

Beatrice sat in the back of a wagon with a lit cigarette hanging out of her mouth and a guitar in her hands. She didn't play any specific song or chords for that matter, she just picked at the strings and enjoyed the peaceful ride. Her gaze occasionally trailed over to John, who was leading her horse. The Mustang didn't much like being without a rider and got uneasy every few minutes, but Beatrice didn't only look that way because of the stallion. Seeing how John struggled to keep the horses in line and succeeded to do so every time was… attractive? She quickly focused back on the guitar every time he glanced at her, not wanting him to see the blush that just wouldn't leave her face. God, she was in deep shit now.

What felt like a three-day ride finally came to an end, Beatrice grabbed her stuff and hopped out of the wagon when it came to a stop. It was a bit of a struggle to hold onto a tent, bedroll, two bags, and guitar all at once, but she eventually made her way over to Arthur just when Dutch started to leave.

"It's real pretty here," Beatrice said.

Arthur turned his head to look at her, "You need some help there?"

Beatrice tried to hold her stuff in a more comfortable way, which was unsuccessful, "No, I got it," She said right before all her things fell to the ground, "...Maybe I do need some help."

Arthur chuckled and picked up the two bags and the tent while Beatrice picked up the rest, they placed it back down on a spot close to where Arthur's tent was being set up. And John's… Beatrice didn't say anything, she would be in even deeper shit if Arthur found out what she felt for John. Avoiding John for as long as possible and hoping that Mary-Beth and Karen would keep their mouths shut was her plan for now.

\---

The next week or so was quite a mess.

Dutch, Bill, and Arthur became temporary deputies and helped the sheriff to stop a moonshine sale. A horrible idea if you asked Beatrice, but no one asked of course. The moonshine that they compensated belonged to the Braithwaites and Arthur and Hosea tried to sell it back to them, but Catherine Braithwaite told them to give it away for free at the local saloon, which belonged to the gray family, their rivals. After getting everyone in the saloon drunk the Lemoyne Raiders showed up, they were the ones that were supposed to buy the moonshine. Needless to say, they got into a shoot-out and barely escaped with their lives.

Avoiding John was also not an easy task, especially when he constantly wanted to talk to her. She was running out of excuses, and she was worried that he might be catching on, or already knew.

"Beatrice. Can we talk for a bit?" John asked her.

Lucky for her, she saw Arthur, Uncle, Charles, and Bill mounting their horses to go on a job and pointed in their direction.

"Can't right now, sorry. They're already leavin'," Beatrice said, already jogging to her horse and not even looking John in the eye.

Beatrice caught up with the others when they stopped at the side of the road, "where we goin'?" She asked and pulled up her bandana.

"What are you doin' here?" Arthur asked.

"Just had to get away from John," She shrugged, "Don't worry about it," She added after seeing the confusion in Arthur's eyes. Arthur wanted to ask but was cut off by Uncle when the wagon arrived. He would ask her once this was over with.

They forced the wagon to stop and learned that it belonged to Cornwall, of course it did. Arthur and Charles checked the wagon while the others kept lookout, but not very well because they failed to see the other wagon and more guards coming their way. They quickly made their escape and ended up hiding a barn somewhere.

Beatrice sat on the floor next to Arthur with her eyes closed, but she was still awake, unlike the others. The only one else still awake was Charles, who was keeping watch. She listened to Arthur's slow breathing to distract her from her thoughts, even though it didn't work. He was going to ask her why she's avoiding John and she couldn't give him the right answer. Arthur and John might not be getting along at the moment, but they're still like brothers, which made this whole situation just more complicated. Feelings are annoying and Beatrice wished she could just get rid of them.

"Alright, let's try and get outta here."

Beatrice lifted herself off the ground and everyone was ready to leave, but Charles stopped them and said there was a light by the house. They all hid and hoped that the guard who entered the barn didn't see them and he was about to leave when Bill knocked over a bucket. The other guards were alerted and a shoot-out ensued. They held their ground and shot most of the guards, but then they noticed the fire that was starting to spread. Bill kicked a hole in one of the walls and they ran into the woods and split up. Beatrice hid behind a rock with Arthur and Uncle.

"They're coming this way," Arthur whispered. He looked at Beatrice from the corner of his eye, "You take the left and I'll take the right, okay?"

Beatrice pulled out her knife and nodded. they waited until the guards got closer and approached them, staying low. Beatrice and Arthur both took a guard at the same time by kicking the back of their knees and then stabbing them in the neck. Beatrice wiped the blood on her knife off on the sleeve of her shirt, it was covered in blood now anyway and placed it back in its sheath. Uncle started to say something but got interrupted by gunfire from where Charles and Bill were.

"Uh oh, clearly those boys ain't as quiet as us," Uncle said.

Beatrice scoffed, all Uncle did was not scoping out a job correctly and getting them in a shit load of trouble. But she let go and followed him and Arthur to where the noise came from, getting out of there alive was more important than getting mad at someone who won't listen anyway.

They gunned down most of the guards with only a few left hiding behind trees and soon their lifeless bodies fell to the ground as well. Arthur told them to split up, Beatrice about to mount up but he stopped her, "What's going on between you and John?"

"Didn't I tell you not to worry about it?" Beatrice said and mounted her horse, she had to get out of there. Not only because she couldn't make up a good excuse, but also because there was no doubt that more guards would show up soon. "It's my business and I'll fix it. I'll see you back at camp." She said and rode off.

Arthur ran a hand over his face and sighed, It was becoming more and more clear that he wasn't cut out for parenting.

\---

The sun had already risen when Beatrice returned to camp and remembered that she was supposed to relieve Karen from guard duty at sunrise. She quickly changed clothes and went to the trees to look for Karen.

"You're late," Karen said in a teasing manner and handed the rifle over to Beatrice.

"I know, I'm sorry but I'm here now," Beatrice expected Karen to just walk away, but instead she just stood there with a sly grin on her face, "What?"

"John?"

"No," Beatrice pushed Karen away, "go pester someone else."

Karen left, but not without looking back and laughing. Beatrice couldn't help but think that she was up to something, but God knows what. She decided not to think about it for now and focused her gaze on the road leading to camp.

Guard duty was the most boring task anyone could have been given and Beatrice was really starting to notice it after an hour of absolutely nothing happening. But the all too familiar gravelly voice that came from behind her grabbed her attention.

"Beatrice."

She turned around and met John's gaze, "John…" She had nowhere to go now; no excuse that would sound even remotely convincing. She was stuck there and to try to hide what she truly felt for him, "What is it?"

He grabbed the rifle from her hands and placed it against a tree, his hand brushed against hers and she could feel her heart skip a beat.

"Karen told me."

Beatrice was confused for a second, but quickly realized what he was talking about, "Oh… It's nothing really. I'm just a stupid girl with a stupid crush. Don't think about it, I try not to, Just-" Her rambling got cut off by the feeling of John's hands on the sides of her face and his lips pressed against hers. She knew this was wrong and that she shouldn't give in, but she did. She closed her eyes and returned the kiss. Just one step back and her back was pressed against a tree, John's hands were now on her hips and hers were tangled up in his hair. Beatrice's whole body tingled, she parted her lips to catch her breath and John took the opportunity to let his tongue invade her mouth. He tasted like whiskey and tobacco. She could feel a warmth blooming between her legs, she moaned and John smiled against her lips. His hand trailed down and he lifted her skirt a bit. Beatrice felt like she was in heaven before, but reality crashed back down on her. She placed her hands against his chest and pushed him away from her. She remembered Abigail and Jack and how John and Arthur are basically brothers. It was wrong.

"I thought-" John started, but Beatrice interrupted him and shoved the rifle in his hands.

"Think about Abigail," She said before turning around and walking to her horse. The guild was starting to overtake her and the need to scream into the void or go to Saint Denis and drown herself in fine wine was growing stronger with each step she took. Maybe she could lay with some fancy city man and forget all about that kiss, about John, about everything that went wrong. But she stopped in her tracks when she heard Dutch talk about a parley with the O' Driscolls. Or she could let the curiosity get the better of her and follow them. She waited a couple of minutes after they left and followed their tracks.

They were easy to follow and she caught them in the heartlands. From what she understood about their conversation at camp Arthur was supposed to be protecting them from higher up, but it seems like the plan had changed and all three of them rode to the place where they were going to meet the O' Driscolls. Beatrice took up the position that was higher up, maybe her curiosity would be a good thing for once and she would be able to protect them if things went south.

Or maybe she should have stayed at camp.

She didn't hear the footsteps behind her, too focused on what was going on down there. The butt of a rifle hitting the back of her head made the whole world spin before everything went black.

\---

Beatrice heard voices when she regained consciousness, they talked about turning them into the law. Hosea was right, it was a trap and she had to get the hell out of there. she crawled a bit before getting on her feet and walking as fast as she could. Her head was pounding and her sight blurry.

"She's escapin'! Shoot her!"

Shit. She tried to pick up the pace but fell to the ground when a bullet hit her side.

"Did I kill ya?"

"Get the hell away from me." Beatrice spat back.

One of them kicked her in the ribs and she could swear that she heard something crack. She couldn't hear what they said after that, but she could feel a bullet lodging itself in her shoulder.

\---

Beatrice woke to the sound of cellar doors being opened, she had been down there for a few hours with her hands strung above her head and all she had on was her chemise. The pain was excruciating and the cold wasn't exactly pleasant either. "I ain't tellin' you shit," She said when Colm entered the cellar, her voice was barely above a whisper and laced with venom. Colm grabbed her by the jaw and forced her to look at him.

"I don't need you to. Soon your friends will come for you and the law will be waiting here for them," He sounded so amused, like he made up the perfect plan and it pissed her off. She sneered and spit in his face.

"Fuck you."

Colm let go of her jaw to wipe his face but grabbed her by the throat seconds later, "I don't need you alive, I could kill you and they won't know."

Beatrice stopped paying attention to what he was saying when she looked behind him. Her gaze locked on someone standing on the stairs. His eyes were filled with anger. Anger directed at Colm, every goddamned O' Driscoll, and the whole world, But not at her. The sadness and regret behind the anger was directed at her. Beatrice never thought she'd see those eyes again, she hasn't seen those eyes in over five months and she thought they belonged to a deadman. Those eyes were the last thing she saw before she lost consciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy, what have I done? The whole thing between Beatrice and John was not supposed to happen! That is the first kiss scene that I've ever written and it wasn't even in my outline! I kinda wanna fix it, but I also kinda don't...
> 
> Y'all can probably guess who that is at the end. God, I can't wait to start on the next chapter!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed reading this, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought! (Also let me know if you like the whole Beatrice and John thing...)


	6. Son of the Wolf

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is my longest chapter yet (5k) and probably also my favorite. it was supposed to be a short chapter that I'd just quickly write (first mistake was thinking I could write anything quickly) but it got out of hand... I still love it though.
> 
> I gave this chapter a title which I have never done before, but do want to start doing. I don't know any titles for the previous chapters yet, so please let me know if you have any ideas!
> 
> LASTLY, PLEASE READ! I have added some tags and changed some!
> 
> Now, to everyone who has been waiting for Elijah, this is for you.

_ "Sex and Alcohol doesn't solve anything, Elijah!" _

_ "You should try it sometime, maybe it'll remove that stick up your ass." _

_ "You're pathetic!" _

That was the end of the last conversation he had with Beatrice before he decided to take a ride to clear his mind. He was only supposed to be gone for a couple of hours and return before she woke up, but he has been on the road for two days now or more, only stopping to let his horse rest. Elijah should've turned back and he knows it, but he couldn't even if he wanted to.

He was lost, starving, and broke. But most of all he was mad. Beatrice was able to get over the death of their mother in a week, but he couldn't do that. He did try though, it's what she wanted, to mourn for a week and then move on like nothing happened. Elijah didn't understand how the hell he was supposed to do that. He had tried to distract himself by playing the guitar, but she taught him how to play and it reminded him too much of her, so he moved on to alcohol and sex. It didn't always work, sometimes it just made everything worse. It just made everything worse. But he couldn't stop.

Elijah focused his eyes on the stars, maybe they could help him find his way back, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out how. Glancing around him, he spotted a river and steered Aphrodite off the road and towards the body of water. He kneeled in front of the water after dismounting and looked at his reflection. He was a mess, His hair more disheveled than usual, the dark circles under his eyes more prominent than ever and his eyes bloodshot from exhaustion or crying he couldn't tell. He splashed some water and his face to wake him up and drank some of it too. 

But there was something different when he looked at the reflective surface again. There was someone behind him with a gun in their hand, pointed right at the back of his head. Elijah slowly stood up and turned around with his hands raised. He saw two more men by his horse, searching the saddlebags.

"There's nothin' in there."

"Quiet," The man in front of him said and reached for Elijah's gun and searched his pockets, but found nothing.

"No, he's right, Declan. Nothin' of value in here, "One of the men who stood by his horse said.

The man now known as Declan took a step closer, "How come you can afford such an expensive horse and not have any money?"

He did have money, just not with him and not enough to buy a horse like that, "Stolen," He answered.

"So you're a thief."

Elijah shrugged and grinned, "I try not to take too much pride in my work."

That seemed to get something like a chuckle out of the other man, "You got family?"

"No."

"A gang?"

"Not anymore, why?"

"Alright," Declan said, completely ignored Elijah's question, and turned his head to look at the others, "Colin, fetch me that rope."

Elijah seemed to stay calm on the outside, but he was starting to panic on the inside. He decided to stay quiet, not wanting to aggravate them and get himself killed, even if they might kill him anyway. Colin came over with a rope and Declan started tying the rope around Elijah's wrists. Declan pushed him towards Aphrodite and told him to mount up, Elijah hesitated but did as told with some struggle.

"What's your name?" Declan asked once he tied Aphrodite's reins to his saddle and mounted his own horse.

"Wyland," Elijah gave them the first name that popped up in his head.

"Wyland who?"

"...Wyland."

Dumbass.

"Your name is Wyland Wyland?" Declan asked with a raised brow.

"Yeah.." Elijah wanted to scratch his neck, but remembered that his hands were tied, "My mother was a… strange woman."

"Well, Wyland Wyland, Make yourself comfortable 'cause we got quite a ride ahead of us. Try anything stupid and you're dead."

Elijah sighed and looked up to the sky, the bright stars, and even brighter moon. He should've turned back as soon as the sun started rising for the first time, he shouldn't have left. He should've stayed and talked it out, even if that would most likely lead to them yelling at each other, it always did.

"Made a damn right fool out of myself now, didn't I, ma?" He whispered, quietly enough for no one but him to hear.

He closed his eyes and enjoyed the slight breeze that hit his cheeks and ruffled his hair.

"I'm sorry…"

\---

Declan was right, they were in for quite a ride. It had been hours before they even took a break, a break that only lasted ten minutes to let the horses rest. While Declan and Colin were talking between themselves, Elijah got to talking to the one that had been quiet, who was now known as Aiden. He was a likable guy who didn't talk much, that had taken to calling Elijah 'princess'. He asked him not to, multiple times, but he stopped after the third time.

After some more excruciating hours, they finally decided to set up camp.

"There's no need for that, I ain't going anywhere," Elijah said while Aiden tied his arms around a tree.

Aiden walked around to face Elijah once he finished tying his hands together again, he took Elijah's chin between his thumb and index finger and forced him to look in his eyes, "I don't quite trust you yet, princess."

Elijah expected him to leave after that, but instead, his gaze lingered on Elijah's eye, his right eye to be more specific. Both his eyes were blue-green, however, his right one was almost half brown. "Like what you see?"

Aiden scoffed and let go of his chin, "Creeps me out."

The smile that formed on Elijah's face while Aiden walked away couldn't be helped. He watched them drink and chat for a bit before they all turned in for the night, that's when Elijah started to work on the rope around his wrists. They weren't very tight and easy to get loose from, he didn't know if it was because Aiden is horrible at tying knots or if he's actually growing on him. But that didn't matter, he was free. The thought of leaving only crossed his mind for a second, he had nowhere to go and he was curious where they were going to take him.

Elijah carefully walked over to his horse and hoped the others didn't wake up, he grabbed a pack of cigarettes and a half-empty whiskey bottle before settling back on his spot under the tree. He lit a cigarette and took a long drag, filling his lungs with smoke, and held his breath, savoring the burning feeling in his lungs before slowly exhaling through his nose. He hoped Beatrice was okay, that she didn't do something stupid that would get her killed. He hoped that he would see her again, even though the chance wasn't likely. Hoped that if they saw each other again, she would be able to forgive him.

Tears were freely streaming down his face by the time he smoked almost all his cigarettes and finished off the whiskey. He didn't try to stop it, knowing it would be a futile attempt. He pulled his legs up to his chest and rested his head on his knees, he let the tears fall and soon drifted into a dreamless sleep.

\---

"Wake up."

Elijah groaned and rolled over, "Five minutes." A kick to his shin made him sit upright and face the person that was bothering him, "I said," He opened his eyes and stared down the barrel of a revolver. "Shit."

"How the fuck did you get free?" Aiden asked, clearly agitated and a little confused.

Elijah chuckled, "I hate to break it to you, friend, but you're not great at tying knots."

"Then why are you still here?"

He shrugged, "Don't got anywhere to go."

Aiden nodded and holstered his gun, "Get up."

"Huh?"

"You heard me, princess. On your feet."

Elijah stood up and followed Aiden to the horses, "Where're we goin'?" He asked. Once there, Aiden rummaged through his saddlebag and shoved a fishing pole in Elijah's hands, and kept walking. Elijah continued to follow him, he now knew what they were going to do, but where exactly they were going was still a mystery.

They arrived at a river after walking for ten to fifteen minutes in complete silence. Aiden tossed Elijah some bait without saying a word. Elijah shrugged, hooked the bait, and cast his line out into the water. He expected Aiden to kill him, with the gun pointed at his head and all, not to go fishing, but it was nice. It was something he knew how to do and enjoyed doing. Also gave him time to think, which he tried to avoid, knowing where that would lead. Instead, he looked out to the water and focused on the fish, reeled one in when it took the bait. He only turned his attention on Aiden when he spoke to him.

"What happened to your nose?" Aiden asked without taking his eyes off the water.

Elijah gave him a questioning look, "Where the hell did that come from?"

"I'm just tryin' to make some small talk."

"You? Small talk? Who would've guessed."

"Just tell me already."

Elijah sighed and briefly touched the scar on his nose, "My sister broke it."

Aiden gave him a sidelong look, "I thought you didn't have any family."

"Not anymore," Elijah lied; at least he hoped he did, "Anyway, my sister broke it after I accidentally shot her," He chuckled for a second before continuing, "In my defense, we were running from the law and I thought they found me, but she wouldn't hear any of it and smashed my face into a tree." 

The laugh that came from Aiden took Elijah by surprise, "Let me guess, little sister?"

"Twin actually, not that it matters."

"Sure it doesn't," Aiden said and tossed a fish in the bucket, they got four, which was enough. He picked it up and started back to their little camp. Elijah followed, unlike the walk to the river the silence on the way back was uncomfortable. Colin and Declan were restarting the fire when Elijah and Aiden returned.

"Why ain't he tied up?" Declan asked upon spotting Elijah.

"Shut it, Declan, he's one of us now. Ain't ya princess?"

Elijah hummed in response, being with this lot was better than being alone on the road without a destination.

"Besides," Aiden started, "He's the one that caught your breakfast." He placed the bucket with fish in front of Declan, who looked pleased with it.

They cleaned the fish and cooked them over the open fire. A bunch of questions were thrown Elijah's way while they ate, like: 'What happened to your eye?', 'What happened to your family?', 'How long have you been on your own?', and 'How come your first and last name are the same?' Elijah answered some of them truthfully, others were more difficult; he has never been a great liar, but they didn't seem to notice. They packed up and got back on the road after they finished eating.

The following weeks weren't anything special, they followed the same routine of riding, camping, fishing, and riding again. Elijah started feeling more and more comfortable with the others, causing him to talk on and on about everything and nothing at all. They mostly just let him ramble on, but every now and then they'd get sick of it and tell him to shut up.

Declan reluctantly gave Elijah his gun back when they decided to rob a homestead, but not without making it very clear that he'd be dead if he tried anything. Elijah felt much better with a gun at his hip and some money in his pockets.

If Elijah thought it was just going to be the four of them, he was wrong. They met up with a slightly bigger group, apparently, they were all part of a big gang called the O' Driscolls, and now Elijah was as well.

April turned into May and they found themselves in the grizzlies, where Elijah got to meet the big boss, Colm O' Driscoll. Colm stared at him for longer than Elijah would have liked, almost like he looked familiar. Luckily, Colm didn't say anything and just dismissed him.

\---

Elijah stood with his head leaning against Aphrodite's neck, exhausted. He had guard duty all night and now Colm wanted him, Colin, Aiden, and Kieran to ride out to Six Point Cabin. Why he wanted Elijah with him was a mystery, but he wasn't about to complain, it was certainly better than staying in the snow.

"Wyland," Colin called out, "you comin' or what?"

"I'll be right there," Elijah answered. He pulled himself up in the saddle and directed his horse to the others.

Something felt off when he joined them like they were being watched. He quickly looked around but saw nothing, so he just blamed it on the lack of sleep.

They rode out and Elijah watched how all the white turned into green, happy to be out of the cold. Six Point Cabin wasn't much, but he enjoyed the time he spent there. When he wasn't running small jobs with Aiden he was doing what he did best: drinking, whoring, and forgetting.

Elijah sat on a log with a working girl on his lap and a beer in his hand. They were about to leave to get some privacy, but a shot rang out, Elijah stumbled backward and tripped over the log as soon as he got up, taking the working girl with him.

"Men in the camp! Men in the camp!" Someone yelled out.

"Run and hide if you know what's good for you!" One of the men that invaded their camp said.

"Stay low and get the hell out of here," Elijah told the working girl. She nodded and quickly scurried out of there. He checked his surroundings, still lying on the ground, there were men dropping dead at every side of him.

"Princess!"

Elijah looked at where the voice came from and met Aiden's eyes, who was hiding behind the cabin and gestured for Elijah to come over. Elijah quickly looked around him again before scrambling towards Aiden.

"How you doin'?" Aiden asked.

"What do you mean 'how am I doin'?' We're being shot at and they're damn good shots too!"

"So are you."

"I'm seeing double here, Aiden. I don't think I'll be able to shoot much of anything."

Aiden took the gun from Elijah's holster, shoved it in his hands, and turned him around, "Just try!"

"Goddamnit…" He raised his gun, aimed, and took a deep breath, focusing his vision for just a second and in that second he shot at someone. Almost hit him. But before he could try again, but the man spotted him and shot right back. The bullet flew past Elijah's face, he got back in cover and slumped to the ground.

"You almost had him!" Aiden said.

Elijah shot Aiden a look, "I almost lost my goddamn brains!"

"But you didn't, so try again."

"No," Elijah said and got to his feet

"What do you mean 'no'? Where are you goin'?"

"I don't know about you, but I ain't dyin' today."

Aiden thought for a second but quickly realized that they weren't going to make it out alive if they didn't leave right that instant. They ran and whistled for their horses as soon as they got out of sight, Aiden waited for his horse while Elijah mounted Aphrodite.

"Shit." Aiden whistled again, but his horse didn't come.

"We ain't got time for this," Elijah held his hand out for Aiden, "come on."

Aiden took his hand and pulled himself up on the back of Elijah's horse. Elijah spurred Aphrodite on and rode off at a gallop, only slowing down when he was sure they were in the clear. The feeling of Aiden's hands on his waist and his breath on his neck made shivers go down Elijah's spine. The shivers were so bad that Aiden noticed.

"You alright?"

"I'm fine," He said and steered Aphrodite off the road and into a small clearing, "It's gettin' late, we should rest up."

They dismounted and Aiden went off to find firewood while Elijah untacked his horse. After that he laid down a bedroll and a blanket, he sat down with his back against the saddle and waited for Aiden to return.

Elijah had a bottle in his hand when Aiden got back and started the fire. "I barely see you without a drink," Aiden said and sat down next to him. close. too close. Elijah shuffled a bit and took a long swig. "Care to share?"

He passed the bottle over to Aiden. They talked for a while, mostly about what happened at Six Point Cabin and who the people were that attacked them. Aiden told him that Colm has some history with another gang leader and that it was probably them.

Time passed and the bottle was almost empty, Elijah took the bottle from Aiden's grip and was about to take the last swig.

"What do you think you're doin'?" Aiden asked

"What do you think I'm doin'?" Elijah laughed and brought the bottle back to his lips.

Aiden laughed as well and reached out for it, but Elijah moved and kept it out of his reach. Aiden didn't give up though, he kept reaching out and getting closer until Elijah was laid on his back and Aiden hovered over him. Before he knew their lips were pressed together. a few seconds passed and they were full-on making out, the bottle completely forgotten. Aiden moved on from Elijah's mouth to his neck. Lower. Unbuttoning Elijah's shirt and leaving kisses on his chest. Lower.

He knew it was wrong, that people got killed for acts like this, and that it shouldn't feel so goddamn good. Small moans escaped his mouth, heart rate, and breathing quickening. He closed his eyes and got lost in the pleasure, forgot about everything else. for now.

\---

Elijah woke up before Aiden, he felt uncomfortable, disgusting, wrong, all of the above. He had to clear his mind, so he got dressed, saddled up Aphrodite, and went out looking for a horse for Aiden because he wasn't going to ride on the same horse after the previous night. He soon found someone alone on the road, threatened him, took his horse, and made his way back.

"Almost thought you left," Aiden said, now awake and cooking some kind of animal, probably a rabbit, over the fire.

"Got you a horse."

Aiden looked up, eyes going from the horse to Elijah, and smiled like the previous night never happened, "Thanks."

Elijah just nodded and stood against a tree.

"Want some?" Aiden gestured to the rabid.

"Not hungry."

"Your loss." He shrugged.

Elijah stared into the fire with his arms crossed, he couldn't stop thinking about the previous night, what people might think if they found out. What Beatrice might think if he ever saw her again and she found out, she probably already hated him and this would certainly seal the deal. But what bothered him most of all was how he felt towards Aiden, a feeling in his stomach that he only ever felt with a girl and shouldn't feel with another boy. He wanted to be close to Aiden, but at the same time, he wanted to get as far away as possible. Elijah got pulled out of his thoughts when Aiden put out the fire.

"We should get goin'," Aiden said.

"Sure," Elijah said and moved away from the tree, he rolled up the blanket and bedroll and stowed them on his saddle, "Where we goin'?" He asked and turned around just to find out that Aiden was standing extremely close to him. His breathing hitched and he took a step back, his heart started beating faster and that feeling in his stomach returned.

"I was thinkin' of Hanging Dog Ranch." He looked Elijah over and noticed how tense he was, "Something wrong?"

"No," He said, intending to end the conversation there, but continued anyway, "Actually, yes."

"What is it, princess?" Aiden asked and reached to place a hand on Elijah's shoulder, but Elijah didn't let him and slapped his hand away. "This about last night?"

"What else would it be about?"

"Did I… did I hurt you?"

"No, it's just… It can't happen again, you can tell anyone, and please stop calling me Princess. It's Wyland from now on, alright?"

Aiden was shocked, he thought they had something, something real and good. But clearly, Elijah didn't think the same and it hurt. He sighed and slowly nodded his head, "Alright."

"Good," Elijah said and mounted his horse, "Lead the way."

\---

They rode the whole way to Hanging Dog Ranch in excruciating silence, they didn't even look at each other when they arrived. Aiden didn't even spare Elijah a single glance the following week, while Elijah could barely keep his eyes off him. It was weird, he wanted to stay as far away from him as possible, but at the same time, he wanted to be close to him. He thought about that night every waking minute and it confused him, and being confused made him frustrated, and being frustrated just made him mad, which wasn't going to get him anywhere. They had to talk.

Elijah looked for Aiden but couldn't find him anywhere and when he asked about him he was met with a shrug or an 'I don't know.' The ranch wasn't that large so it really shouldn't have been that hard to find him. But it was and he was about to give up. Until he saw him. Walking through the trees quite a distance away and Elijah couldn't exactly see his face or anything, but he knew it was him by the way he carried himself. Elijah just stared for a minute before hesitantly taking a step forward, he continued to slowly approach Aiden, every step making his heart pound faster, until he was there, right next to him.

Aiden stopped and glanced at him, "What do you want?"

Silence.

Elijah swallowed, he didn't think he'd get this far, was half expecting to chicken out and turn back halfway.

"Y'know, if you're just gonna stand there and say nothing you might as well-"

"How did you know?" Elijah blurted out.

"What?"

"How… How did you know that you…"

"Liked guys." Aiden finished the sentence for him and sighed, "I don't know, guess I always knew. Why?"

Elijah threw his head back and hit the tree he was leaning against with a loud thud. "I don't know," He groaned, "I'm just so goddamn confused."

"I think you know."

"And how do you know that?"

Aiden moved closer, he raised his hand and waited for Elijah to slap it away like the last time, but he didn't. Aiden rested his thumb on Elijah's cheek and his index finger under his chin, slowly lifting his head and making him look him in the eye, "'Cause someone who doesn't wouldn't've reacted the way you did."

The distance between them quickly closed and their bodies were pressed together and so were their lips. It didn't take long for the kiss to deepen and grow hungry. Elijah completely melted into it, but Aiden pulled away before it could go any further. He looked down, his eyes on Elijah's crotch, and then looked back up, a playful grin gracing his lips, "I think you know," He repeated and walked away, leaving Elijah flushed and wanting more.

He thinks he knows. And he thinks he's okay with that.

\---

Elijah stayed at Hanging Dog Ranch for another month and a half, in that time he and Aiden got more serious. They often snuck off into the trees or said they were 'going on a job', while in reality they just wanted some privacy, but they still did real jobs to not look suspicious.

They were just about to sneak out, but Colin came riding in and told them they were needed at Lone Mule Stead. Apparently, Colm had something big planned with that rival gang Aiden told Elijah about. Colin rounded up some more men and they rode out. The ride wasn't long, just an hour or two, but it did feel like it to Elijah. Luckily Aiden was there to keep him entertained.

Lone Mule Stead wasn't much to look at, just some rundown homestead. What caught Elijah's attention though was the talk about a girl they captured. He already knew that those were the kind of men he ran with, but it still disgusted him, especially the way they talked about her, like she was some kind of object, hoping that Colm would let them have a go at her. But there was more, the feeling like something was wrong. And he heard it. Dutch van der Linde. And he panicked. It couldn't be her, could it? It better not be.

He quickly dismounted and walked over to the basement where they were keeping her. And then he saw. His sister strung up, shot, beaten, bleeding, and a hand around her throat. He was furious, her eyes met his, they were blurry and unfocused, she looked mad at first sight, but he could see the fear and surprise behind her eyes right before she lost consciousness. Colm held his hand on her throat for a while longer until he was sure she wasn't waking up for now.

Elijah walked back, he wanted to kill Colm right there and then, but then he'd also get killed and Beatrice would never get out. He stopped at the other side of the house, he dropped to the ground, shaking. He had to do something, but there were too many of them.

"Hey, you okay?" Aiden knelt down to his level.

"Does it look like I'm okay?"

"No, what's wrong?"

Elijah sighed, he had to tell him the truth. All of it, "I can trust you, right?"

"Of course."

"That girl down there is my sister."

Aiden's eyes widened just a bit before going back to normal, "I thought she was dead."

"Well clearly she ain't, and my name ain't Wyland Wyland, It's Elijah Morgan." Elijah was glad to get that out, keeping his real name a secret made him feel kind of guilty.

"Morgan? Heh, you know Arthur Morgan by any chance?" Aiden said with a nervous little laugh, trying to make light of the situation.

"Not really, but… I'm his son."

"Jesus Christ."

Elijah didn't respond, he had to make up a plan to get Beatrice out of there and quick.

"Hey," Aiden said and placed a hand on Elijah's shoulder, "we're gonna get her out of here."

"We?" Elijah asked.

Aiden smiled, "Don't think for a second that I'm gonna let you do this on your own."

\---

Two days. It took two days for an opening to get Beatrice out, Colm was gone and took some men with him. There were only five men left keeping guard on the property itself and a few more guarding the road, but they wouldn't be alerted if Aiden and Elijah were able to do this quietly. They each took out two men near the entrance before Aiden went to get Beatrice's stuff and the horses ready. Elijah went to take out the others, one at the side of the house, one by a tree, and the last one in the basement.

Elijah slowly descended the steps and tried not to make a noise, but of course, the last step had to creak. The man reached for his gun when he turned around, but Elijah was quicker and plunged his knife into his gut. The man grabbed Elijah's wrist and tried to pull the knife out just for it to be pushed further and twisted. Elijah watched the life slowly drain from his eyes and dropped to the ground. He looked at Beatrice, unconscious and just hanging there, she almost looked dead. He pressed two fingers under her jaw and felt a faint pulse.

"Bee, wake up." He gently tapped her on the cheek, she let out a soft groan and slowly opened her eyes.

"Eli?"

"I'm getting you the fuck out of here," He said and started working on the lock. Beatrice let out a soft sigh of relief. Elijah carried her out of the basement and to Aiden and the horses.

"Help me get her on," Elijah said and passed Beatrice over to Aiden before mounting his horse, Aiden lifted her and Elijah pulled her on the saddle in front of him and wrapped his coat around her.

"We should come out on a road if we ride to the shore and follow it," Aiden said after mounting his own horse. Elijah nodded and did what Aiden said. "What now?"Aiden asked once they got to the road.

Elijah shook Beatrice awake again, much to her dismay, "Where we goin'?"

"Clemens… Point."

"Follow me," Aiden said.

They rode in silence, the only noise that was made were the horse's hooves hitting the ground and Elijah occasionally trying to keep Beatrice conscious.

Aiden stopped, "Into those trees."

"You're not coming?" Elijah asked.

"Nah, I assume they'll bury me alive," Aiden chuckled, "Meet me in Valentine, two weeks." Elijah nodded, they both went to ride off but Aiden stopped, "Hey, Princess."

Elijah turned to look at him, slightly annoyed by the nickname.

"Good luck."

"Thanks."

This time Aiden nodded before riding off at a gallop. Elijah took a deep breath before going through the trees and into the camp. He was met with a girl, "Beatrice!" She said and then met Elijah's eyes, "Who are you?"

"Doesn't matter," Elijah said, "Just help her."

More people gathered around, none of the faces familiar, except for one, Dutch van der Linde. Dutch looked at him and he could tell he knew exactly who he was.

"Charles, go find Arthur," Dutch said

Arthur. Elijah was not looking forward to meeting him. But he had to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First things first, Elijah isn't gay, he's bi. Just in case that wasn't clear. (Knowing me, it probably wasn't)
> 
> Second, so much of this wasn't supposed to happen, like keeping Colin alive and me getting attached to Aiden, also Elijah getting attached to Aiden. well, it's done now and I have no regrets. This chapter really wasn't supposed to be this long. It was supposed to be a short introducing to Elijah and then freeing Beatrice. But my characters had something different in mins. as usual.
> 
> oh well... I really hope ya'll liked this chapter! please let me know if you think I should add more tags or warnings, what you thought of the chapter, maybe some title ideas if you have any and anything you need to get off you chest. :)


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